Wings of Destiny
by FaerieKnight197
Summary: Ten years after the time loops have ended various people involved have moved on. Yet destiny is a fickle thing, and sometimes those who broke their own can end up caught up in another person's preordained fate. This is the third installment in my Wings Of series and predominantly follows Rei Hino and one other character. The M rating is because mature themes may occur.
1. Chapter 1

"speech (English mainly but varies for location of action)"

"_telepathic speech"_

_thoughts_

/"different language or panda sign"/

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Ranma ½, Ah! My Goddess, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or Harry Potter. I make no money from this, nor do I plan on trying to. This is purely for fun.

**Warning:** There will be OOC for some characters. It is an AU though, so that can almost be expected.

_**Wings of Destiny**_

_By _

_Faerie Knight_

There was a question which had bothered him for a very long time. It had first arisen when he'd heard the story of how his mother first met two long time friends. That question was simple in nature. How had his mother lost so badly to the Masons if she'd literally out lived the universe multiple times? He himself was over a thousand years old. And in that time his combat skills had done nothing but improve. So how did his mother lose so badly?

There was a clue somewhere. Perhaps it lay in his initial impressions when he'd taken his mother's training in hand all those centuries ago. She'd been highly polished with what she knew. Each movement had been graceful. And it had been as rigid as the kata she'd practiced for eons. Against an average martial artist she'd have probably been unstoppable. But for all the years of practice his mother had merely been a the equivalent of a second dan. A highly polished second dan, but still not even a Master.

At least, when it came to the family style that had been the case. But then the family style was one of the most dangerous styles around. Practitioners were fully capable of feats normal people considered impossible. They could defy gravity and move at inhuman speeds. The 'anything goes' style didn't actually use dan rankings though. There were just three ranks in the style: student, master, and grandmaster. The parent style had one grandmaster, and the Nightbane school's sister schools had no grandmasters. Then again only one person practiced the Saotome school, and only two practiced the Tendo school.

That lack of mastery had been fixed recently. _It is ironic that my own mother was the last one to achieve mastery, _the man thought as he came in for a landing. The temple he was visiting was home to three goddesses. It was also where he was suppose to meet a client. Ever since the recursive cycles had ended the man had been taking jobs for whichever side of an ancient conflict would pay. Heaven or hell, he didn't care. But there were some jobs he refused to accept.

The man in question had hair as dark as a raven's feathers. Matching leathery wings came from his back. His face was youthful still despite his great age. An outside observer might have guessed his age to be around sixteen or seventeen. He wore a comfortable black undershirt with a maroon sleeveless vest over top. His lower half was sheathed in dark blue, almost black silk pants. On his feet he wore a pair of leather boots dyed a deep burgundy. Many of those who thought they knew the man would never have expected him to wear such cloths.

His birth name was Saotome Ranma. He'd not actually gone by that name in a very long time though. Instead he went by another, Nightbane Ranma. The name was to honor a past life which held particular importance to the man. At one point he had been human. That changed when his father took him to China. It changed when he first was cursed. Although the curse it's self wasn't the full reason he stopped going by his birth name. Those same events were why Ranma even knew goddesses and demons.

As he entered the temple grounds the man couldn't help but wince. The holy aura was more then a little uncomfortable to demons of his type after all. It was something he could live with, but still not pleasant. Incubi and Succubi had long been considered enemies of Heaven. And it was with good cause. Many of his species were extremely evil. Unless careful they could easily kill while feeding, and many didn't care. More then one desiccated corpse had been left behind by them.

"Hello Urd," he called out. "I am made to understand that you have work for me."

_**XxXxX**_

A rather tall woman stood before the ancient castle. Her eight feet of height made the woman stand out in any place she traveled to. The well worn brown duster and matching cowboy hat had clearly seen better days. The black duffel bag slung over one shoulder was new though. Out of the back of the coat poked a wire covered sword hilt. _I hope Eric's all right,_ she thought before striding up to the large structure. The thought wasn't exactly random either. This was the longest she'd been away from her husband in centuries.

But they both had lives. And they had been growing apart for a while. Although still in love with each other, both had realized they needed to separate for a time. It was for this reason that the woman had decided to train another in her trade. That the person being taught happened to be a succubus was something she found amusing. The vast majority of succubi the woman had encountered over the years were inhuman monsters who killed for the fun of it. So meeting a couple who were honest to mother champions of the light was amusing.

Her apprentice wasn't here. There were wards around the estate apparently that prevented entry. So the woman had given her apprentice the task of researching this castle. Three weeks ago they had been investigating reports of vampires in the congo. Vampires were one thing Susan Mason took very seriously. So if there was a group in a rain forest, she had to find out how they were surviving. That was one plague that if the warrior could help it would never gain a foothold.

Instead of vampires, the two had found some sort of semi-demonic entity and dead unicorns. Needless to say, anything that would kill a unicorn had to be put down in Susan's book. The creature had actually seemed surprised at her attack. It had equally been shocked when a succubus used Shinto magic to fight it. Shame the creature had gotten away. It's host hadn't, which lead to her being before this castle. She approached and knocked loudly. The force of each blow caused the great doors to shake.

Several minutes passed, and still no response came. Thus she knocked again. Once more the great doors shook with each impact. While not the strongest of her kind, Susan was no weakling. A lifetime of doing battle with the darkness had ensured that. Eventually someone did answer. And that someone was an old looking man with flowing snow white beard. Susan took the man in quickly, assessing if he was a possible threat. She casually flicked her coat back to reveal a pistol and sawed off shotgun, yet didn't move to draw a weapon.

"Hello, are you the master of this castle?" She asked calmly. "I have it on good authority this will be the sight of a major confrontation between Dark and Light. I'm here to ensure no innocents get hurt."

"I see," the man said with a twinkle in his eye, "And what makes you believe this?"

"Because a reverent escaped three weeks ago after having possessed a man and killing a unicorn. And a precog I know has stated this castle is where the next five major confrontations with it will be. I don't know when. So I have to be on hand to stop this monster from killing again. Name's Susan Mason, by the way. You could say I'm a supernatural evil exterminator. And you'll likely not find anyone with more experience at it outside of Japan."

With an amused chuckle the elderly man invited her in. A fact which alarmed Susan to no end. After all, in her experience it was never a good thing to just randomly invite strange supernatural beings into your home. Too often that could bite you in the rear in quite literal ways. Still Susan followed him. The moving portraits were interesting. And the occasional ghost had her on edge. Past experiences indicated ghosts were rarely a good thing.

He lead Susan through the impressive building and stopped before a gargoyle. The more she saw, the less she liked. And when the statue opened a door into an office Susan grew decidedly annoyed with this man. _He dares to keep a phoenix captive?_ To anyone else the flame hued bird would have appeared happy. But not to one with centuries of experience fighting the darkness. Susan had met a few phoenix in her time and none kept their head lowered like that if happy.

"Mother preserve me," Susan muttered as she turned towards the man.

She grabbed the elderly man by the robe and lifted him off the ground with one hand. With a dark glare she snarled at him. The man blinked a couple times in surprise. But there was no fear. Instead he gazed directly into the woman's eyes as if searching her soul. She shook her head and growled angrily at him. Moments later the elderly man found himself thrown into his richly upholstered chair. Susan continued to glare at him.

"Release the phoenix, now. And stay out of my head." She snarled. "I wont stand for the enslavement of one of Ra's favored. I'm sure mom will be rather pissed about it too when she learns."

The old man sat and pondered what he had seen. It had been a surprise to be almost literally thrown out of her mind. He'd not gotten many details. But one thing was most concerning. _My plans it seems must be adjusted._ He adopted a 'kindly old man' demeanor once more in an attempt to relax the unknown woman. It didn't appear to work. Instead the woman was drawing a pistol and aiming it at him casually. That amused him.

"Muggle devices don't work at Hogwarts I'm afraid," he told her.

Susan didn't even blink. "This pistol can hold two types of ammunition. The first fires an energy bolt specifically designed to damage spirits and other incorporeal threats. It's the second I think you'll find of interest though. It also can fire telekinetic 'bullets' capable of harming most corporal demons and monsters. Needless to say they're also effective on humans. Hurts like hell too.

"Now, the way I see it you have two choices. First you can release the phoenix willingly and maybe work with me in my investigation. Or I can shoot you between the eyes, releasing the phoenix. After which I investigate on my own why the reverent will attack this place five times and how to stop it."

Needless to say, the ultimatum did not please the elderly man. There were a few reasons for this. Among them was the fact the spell to bind a familiar had no counter. None was ever expected to be needed after all. Another reason was that he rather liked his forehead unperforated. And while he was fairly confidant the muggle firearm wouldn't work, he could clearly see a sword too. This did not bode well for his continued safety.

He decided to try a hopefully effective tact. "What do you know of magic, miss?"

Susan continued to glare at him while thinking over the question. "I know your stalling, but magic can be useful. Can't use it myself. And I prefer a gun far more then trusting a chant anyway."

Since the pistol was still aimed at him the man chuckled a little nervously. He wasn't scared. No, not at all. But that was a rather large bore pistol being pointed at him. And he had seen images of this rather tall woman shooting his defense against dark arts professor, and then causing a possessing spirit to flee in panic. While the nature of the spirit was an unknown, the man suspected who it had been. And so the elderly man began trying to bargain for not only his life but maybe a new teacher too.

_**XxXxX**_

Ranma Nightbane was annoyed. Unlike others working for the Powers, Ranma wasn't able to instantly travel to any location. No, she had to be limited to just heading to her apartment and back. That said apartment was located in what mortals called 'hell' was immaterial. Oh sure, any bed she knew of in hell would work just fine for transport. But the only earth destination she was capable of was currently the Tendo dojo. Specifically the bed of one Nabiki Tendo. And according to everyone she'd talked to the destination would change to whatever bed Nabiki Tendo was sleeping in.

Since the current job was in England, that meant Ranma had to travel. And with no passport that meant flying personally the entire way. It had rained a few hours ago. A nasty, miserable event if ever Ranma had experienced one. It was a cold and biting rain that chilled to the bone. This was the main reason she was still a female at the moment. Up ahead was the shoreline. A welcome sight if ever Ranma had encountered one. After the long trip she was tired and hungry.

It was another three hours before Ranma finally reached her destination. Most of it had been spent sating the gnawing hunger. Seconds after landing her wings vanished. This left the busty succubus wearing a backless ruby evening gown and her aged leather bracers. A small burst of demonic magic temporarily changed the color of the bracers to match her dress. It also formed black three inch heels on her feet. Ranma strode into the building with purpose. With a pause she checked over the files for this job once more.

"This task seams like it shall be easy enough. And yet I regret the length it shall take."

The very fact there had been resistance at the door was interesting. It had felt like an anti-demon ward. A rather strong one too. Much stronger then those that had been at a certain family owned shrine in Japan Ranma frequented. _It is entirely too likely my chylde would be barred entrance. And yet this knowledge sits ill with me. Corruption does not lie with mine own kind alone. Do these people not understand such a simple concept?_

Ranma Nightbane knew she was a contradiction. She was a succubus and an incubus at the same time. A creature of infernal origin, yet a divine champion. In the war between Good and Evil she chose to side with mankind rather then either of the factions. As a neutral party she did jobs for both sides. At least, now that the time stream was no longer damaged she did. Which was why Ranma was in the ministry of magic.

Surprisingly both sides had a stake in this one. Even more surprising was her job. All Ranma had to do was become the personal secretary for the current minister of magic. Or at least, on the surface that was the only task. There was far more at stake, that much was clear. After reading the files she knew this 'fudge' person was an easily bought idiot. So the real job was to ensure the safety of some destined champion by preventing problems from the fool.

As she applied for the job only one thought was going through Ranma's mind. _I truly do dislike baby sitting._

_**XxXxX**_

_I don't believe this,_ Rei thought to herself. _An entire secret society of supposed demon hunters, and all they do is kidnap girls to brainwash? _She found it amusing the so-called watchers had blindly assumed Rei to be a newly called 'slayer', whatever that was suppose to mean. How a group of demon hunters could mistake a succubus for this 'slayer' Rei didn't know. Sure she was only a lesser succubus, but still a demon. And if her 'mother' hadn't been who she was, Rei knew she'd have been little more then a slave these past centuries.

A message had already been left at the prearranged contact point explaining the situation. And now Rei found herself on an airplane en rout to something called a hellmouth. And wasn't that a name to inspire terror in a champion of Good. Not to mention it had been almost a week since the last time Rei had been able to feed. Oh sure she could eat human foods still. But they didn't exactly provide nourishment anymore. A surprise came when the plane landed though.

For no logical reason the edge of her hunger started to abate. The area also had a rather homey feeling to it. While it was true being the senshi of Mars meant Rei didn't actually have to feed, if she didn't the hunger would still be there to a degree. And without feeding her own innate abilities would be useless. It was like eating light snacks instead of full meals, you wouldn't starve but still were always hungry.

But now that hunger was actually fading without needing to feed. And that was a great relief to the succubus. It also was worrisome. But upon exiting the terminal there was a man wearing entirely too much tweed. Young, maybe mid twenties to early thirties. Although all humans were young to Rei and her close friends anymore. The man was accompanied by a teenage blond girl who carried herself like a partly trained warrior. It was the teenage boy with them who drew the most attention.

"Hi," she said in English. "You must be Giles, I'm Rei. Who's the Champion and warrior?"

The fact the boy was called a champion had surprised them. They could practically hear the capitalization too. The girl was eying Rei warily. Something about this Asian girl was giving seriously wiggy vibes. The boy on the other hand was merely stunned into silence by the proclamation he was a champion. It was true that he tried to fight evil. But a champion? That he didn't see. As far as the boy was concerned, he merely did what anyone would.

_**XxXxX**_

Susan Mason pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. "Do you honestly mean to tell me your bringing a possible method for this 'dark lord' to come back from near death into this school? And that you want everyone to create a series of traps first year students can bypass to protect it? That has got to be the stupidest idea I've ever heard. And my brother had the _brilliant_ idea to contact Hel for a favor."

Perhaps it was the first time the other teachers had considered just what they were being asked to guard. Maybe they just hadn't considered that aspect consciously. Either way several eyes turned to Dumbledore. It was clear they wanted confirmation. Yet the old wizard wasn't giving it. Instead he tried looking wise and important. Having an almost eight foot tall woman slap him in the back of the head destroyed this appearance.

"Yes, he really wants to do something that stupid. The philosopher's stone, sometimes refereed to as the sorcerer's stone, has long been sought by alchemists in a several realities. Yes, realities, as in more then one. I myself was born in one dimension and have traveled through or been forced to experience hundreds more. It's main property is the transmutation of lead into gold. Another frequent trait is said to be the creation of an 'elixir of life' that can instantly heal any injury and indefinitely extend one's life. That is what he's wanting the traps to guard."

There was one teacher not present at the meeting. Susan couldn't remember the woman's name, just that she taught divination. Or at least was suppose to. How one teaches a psi talent was a good question. One which had been already asked a few times. These stick waving robe wearers though didn't seem to understand the question. Then again they didn't quite understand that her own abilities were more psychic in nature then magical.

"And what would _you_ suggest," sneered the potions teacher.

"Since I know no one in this room is possessed by the undead creature I encountered, I'd suggest destroying the stone now and setting a trap. Go ahead with the traps you all were planning. But the real goal is to take out this 'voldimort' creature when it makes it's appearance. And Snape, if you betray the cause of Light I'll put a bullet between your eyes. If you want I can contact someone who knows about removing mystic enslavement brands. He might even be able to show you a thing or twelve about combining magic and tech."

Already the current defense against dark arts teacher had ideas for her own trap. Ideas which would require contacting her brother anyway. And that required a little aid from a new friend. It was obvious the headmaster wasn't happy with the suggestion. In fact there was a brief flash of greed and anger. What that was about, no clue. So, yeah, that was worrying to say the least. And of course there was discovering her apprentice was shipped off to America by a bunch of idiotic researchers.

That had been discovered while submitting the proposed lesson plans. _Speaking of which,_ Susan thought, _I should finish preparing the 'lab' tonight._ "Hey prof cat-lady, could you help me with something? I need a very specialized enchantment placed on a mirror."

It was always amusing to watch the house Griffendor head twitch like that.

_**XxXxX**_

The building was in chaos. And the cause? Dozens of six inch tall men and women with innate magical powers and archaic tendencies. What made the situation worse was that they all seemed resistant to the very idea of being stopped.. It was snowing in the lobby, there was some sort of dance going on in the cafeteria (a somehow contagious dance to boot), and half the aurors were wearing bright pink tutus and preforming Shakespeare in the court room. Male aurors at that. The plays were well done though.

Over the PA system a vengaboys song titled 'we like to party' was playing. Minister Fudge didn't even know the building _had_ a PA system until now. Then there was his secretary. Miss Nightbane was quite good at her job. Yet today she had decided to turn all her cloths inside out. That, and wear her underwear on the outside. Oddly enough, she was also the only one not being harassed by the 'fair folk' as she called them.

"Miss Bones is here to see you, Sir." His secretary said calmly.

_The next morning_

All across the wizarding world owls delivered the morning paper. And in many households the early edition of the Daily Prophet brought snorts of amusement. At Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry the general tone of breakfast was one of great humor. Although more then a few students were still sneaking glances at the eight foot tall blond woman sitting with the other teachers. A woman who was reading a large, thick leather bound tome as she ate.

Shortly before the meal ended she stood up and left the great hall. One of the new students turned to his recently made friend and asked "Who is she Ron?"

"Don't know Harry," the friend replied, "but she's bloody tall."

The first boy's name was Harry Potter, although many knew him as 'the boy who lived'. He was only recently turned eleven. But most of all he was a neophyte wizard. Not a very good one yet though. This was only his first week of school. So while Harry and the other first years in his house went to the day's initial class he was entirely unaware of what the day would bring. Sentient pictures were still a fairly new and novel thing to him.

When the first year students arrived at their first class of the day Harry paused. One wall was covered with weapons of various kinds. They ranged from ancient weapons such as swords and axes to more modern weapons such as a 9mm pistol. The most unusual one was recognized by anyone not raised in the wizarding world, a super soaker water gun. The mysterious new teacher was sitting behind a desk at the front.

"Take a seat and put wands away please," she told the class. "As Dumbledore said at start of term, my name is Susan Mason. And you're here to learn how to defend yourself and others against the forces of darkness. But before we begin, I have something to tell you. I am not a witch. I don't use magic, although I have a few psychic talents. That means what I teach wont depend on waving a stick around. I've been fighting demons, vampires, and other dark creatures for a little over a thousand years. And I'm here to pass my hard earned knowledge on to you."

One of the kids snorted in derision so the professor asked "Is there something you find amusing, Mafoy?"

"Yeah," the blond boy said snidely. "Muggle trash like you thinking they can teach a pure blood anything."

Susan approached the wall of weapons and pointed out a blood red axe. "This axe is now called 'blightbane'. I used it to land the killing blow on Pestilence, one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Many good people died in that battle." No one seemed to understand the implications of that statement. She pointed out a six shot colt revolver. "This pistol when combined with the six bullets originally made for it was capable of slaying any supernatural entity with one shot. We'll be covering it's history later."

"I have faced dark gods, demons, vampires, vengeful spirits, and practically any other dark creature you can think of. Then I faced hundreds more you have never imagined exist. Who can tell me the best way to ward against vampires? Miss Granger, go ahead."

The named girl spoke up. "Garlic or wild roses."

"Only partly true," Susan told the class. "Garlic does indeed ward off some vampires. But trusting wild roses to do the same will only get you killed or worse. Bram Stroker's novel has gotten more people killed due to misinformation then you might realize. Now, everyone open your copy of 'Mystical Ireland' and turn to page twenty-nine. Since there's a mound near London now today you'll be learning how to deal with faerie."

Draco Malfoy felt this was a prime chance to show how useless the teacher really was. "There's no such thing as fairies."

"Now that is patently false," Professor Mason said with a smile. "Most just avoided this dimension for a while. Or do you think the pixies and nixies who caused trouble in London yesterday aren't real? Faerie is both the name of certain species, and the overall name of their type of magical creature. And unlike the doxy and 'fairy' you're familiar with they are intelligent. Well, usually. According to a frost pixie I know the 'fairy' population native to this dimension are the direct result of an ancient curse cast during the time of Camelot by, and I quote, 'the time mad one'. It's this curse that caused the fair folk to mostly abandon this dimension until recently."

What followed was two hours of lectures and practical demonstrations. The demonstrations were done with the aid of a light blue miniature female calling herself Arrena. That Arrena got paid in bubble gum had been rather amusing to half the class. The class's homework though was something that made everyone groan. Three feet of parchment by the next Friday on faerie culture and the seelie court.

_**Late September**_

"So, he's a vampire?" Rei asked with a little incredulously.

"Yeah," the bleached blond slayer replied.

"With a soul?"

"and?" Buffy Summers asked again with growing annoyance.

"That was forced on him by a curse?" Rei continued.

"So?"

Rei reached over and slapped the slayer hard enough to send her to the floor. "Baka! Your worse then Usagi! At least she can use her head on occasion."

It was almost enough to make a person scream. One of the first things her mentor had taught Rei was that curses always have a way to be broken. They were intended to punish. As such it was all too easy to figure out what would break this curse. He was suppose to suffer guilt for all eternity? Likely true happiness would break the curse and return the inhuman monster. And then there was the whole necrophilia aspect.

"I really don't see why your interested in a walking corpse, Buffy." Rei told her finally with a shake of her head. "But if you get anyone hurt, I'll 'dust' the corpse myself."

"Hate to say it, but DG has a point," Xander Haris chipped in.

It was one of the boy's more annoying traits. He tended to give nicknames to everyone. In Rei's case it was 'dg' or 'demon girl'. Just as the watcher disliked being called 'G-man', yet Xander continued to do so. The interjection did however cause everyone to turn to the teen who spoke. Since Xander had distrusted the succubus from the very start, actually supporting her came as a shock to all. So one could forgive Willow for knocking over several stacks of books.

_**XxXxX**_

Her axe was missing. That was worrying. It meant there was a good chance her foe had an agent in the school already. Of more concern was the entirely too clear evidence of who took it. After being with Eric Von Mason for this long, Susan had developed a distrust of blatantly obvious evidence. Especially with the timing. The first match of that broom sport of the year was tonight. Everyone would be at it. Which meant it would be a prime chance to murder an eleven year old boy, if he's isolated.

"This gives me an idea," she said with a smile.

Ten minutes later the first year student was sitting in Susan's office and looking nervous. The summons had pulled him out of potions class after all. The two sat across from each other for a couple minutes. Finally Susan poured him a mug of earl gray tea from the cask her brother had made. As the Potter boy sipped his tea she studied him. Finally Susan decided she liked what was seen. Thus she started the plan.

"Someone stole Blightbane."

The Potter boy's eyes shot wide in alarm. "You don't think _I _stole it, do you?"

"No, not really." Susan told him. "But you're the only suspect.. Which means you'll be serving detention tonight during the game." _Sorry kid, but if I'm right this will save your life._

_Later_

_It's not fair!_ Harry railed as he sat in the class room. Professor Mason had tasked him with writing a ten foot essay on cursed forms of immortality for detention. A detention for something he hadn't done. So here he was, struggling to understand a tome written a thousand years before his birth. The professor had ducked into her office to do something. He was missing the first game of the season. A game that should have been his big day.

A soft creaking sound caused Harry to turn around. It was just in time to witness the missing axe being embedded in his chest. Surprisingly there was no blood. And while there was a moment of crippling pain, in it's wake Harry found himself thinking clearer then he'd ever done before. The force of the impact did cause the Potter boy to fall backwards though. His head struck the side of a desk, sending him spiraling into unconsciousness

Out from the office stepped Professor Mason, a sawed off shotgun in hand. The assailant was a mystery to her. He was in the third year class, but beyond that Susan didn't know much about this kid. Just that he was from that snake house. With the gun still trained on her captive Susan approached Harry. She knelt down and casually pulled the axe out of his chest. In it's wake the only visible damage was to Harry's robe and shirt.

"Funny thing about Blightbane; my mom had it made for me when I went to fight the four horsemen. It's incapable of harming one of noble spirit. But the demonic? It does wonders against that. Especially since it absorbed a fraction of Pestilence's essence. The name's no accident. This axe is the bane of all blights on humanity. Just the thing to destroy a twisted soul fragment left behind in a baby, wouldn't you say?"

She sighed and punched the kid. "But I suppose you don't even know what you were doing. I've seen that glazed expression before. Who was controlling you, I wonder?"

With a sigh she holstered the shotgun. The axe was placed back in it's holder on the wall at first. Changing her mind, Susan instead retrieved the axe's back scabbard and carried it with..The two students were then picked up. The mind controlled boy got slung over one shoulder. Harry however she carried far more gently. Soon enough they were at the school's infirmary. Unknown to Susan Mason or her two students being placed in medical care someone was cursing elsewhere in the castle.

_**October 31st**_

Rei still didn't know why she had to attend the school too. Sure, she still looked to be sixteen and probably would for a few more centuries at least. It was one problem with living over a thousand years due to looping in time. Even more, she didn't really understand what 'Halloween' was. In Paragon City that time of year had been marked by yearly demonic attacks on the city. Otherwise the day held no special meaning.

So when the school's troglodyte of a principle used his rather unique interpretation of volunteering Rei had no idea what to do. Which was why they were all standing in this costume shop. Unfortunately, she had the feeling something bad was going to happen soon. The 'scooby gang' had already been warned something may happen despite Giles claiming it would be a quiet night. Entering the costume shop felt to the demonic warrior like being punched in the gut.

If she hadn't been feeling full nearly constantly in this town Rei may not have noticed. But as it was she felt something trying to compel her actions. Which was why she dragged the three demon hunters out of the store almost right away. With two small bursts of power Rei sent a warning first to her demonic parent, then her mentor. If anything seriously bad happened that night she wanted someone aware of what was happening.

"Play dress up if you want," Rei told them, "But that place stinks of dark magic. It's probably some sort of energy draining trap. I hate those. There's always some weird monster with stupid but dangerous attacks, like throwing streams of frosting at you or launching boxing gloves."

Buffy scowled cutely at Rei's words. Ever since the Japanese woman had arrived several months ago the vampire slayer had distrusted her. The woman rarely ate. She also gave Buffy a serious case of the creeping willies. Being looked at like a potential snack now and then didn't help matters either. But to claim such intimate knowledge of how dark powers worked really raised red flags to Buffy. Oh sure Rei had claimed to be on the side of angels. But that didn't mean Buffy would trust a succubus as far as she could throw one.

"Like you'd know anything about it." Buffy snorted. "Let alone tell the truth."

The off hand comment however caused the teenage boy with them to think. He remembered a cartoon from six years previous. One said to be based on real events in Japan. The cartoon had centered around a group of girls averaging thirteen years of age who fought a demonic invasion. But that made no sense. None of the girls from the cartoon had been demons. And none of the demons had survived. Unless one were to count the child from the 'dark moon' storyline.

"You don't look like a blond," Xander commented. "Are you sure your name is 'chibi moon'?"

Rei rolled her eyes at the comment. "No, but I can tell you all about everyone while making disguises for you all. Just not here."

_**XxXxX**_

_That is the biggest, ugliest troll I've ever seen._ Susan Wellington stared at the unconscious creature in the girl's bathroom. Then she looked at the three students who were responsible. She recognized the three all right. They were sometimes called the 'golden trio' by other students. But that was said mockingly. Already those three had gotten in more trouble then any other student besides the Weasley twins. That included them blundering into a forbidden area of the castle several weeks ago.

The giant of a woman raised an eyebrow in amusement. Miss Granger's skin had turned a light shade of green and her hair a darker shade. Then there was the fact her hair had leaves sprouting out of it. The Weasley boy's skin had turned blue and his hair white. And he was floating. The fact that snow kept randomly falling on the boy was even more humorous. Then there was Potter. His shirt and robe had been shredded by whatever blast had occurred. This let the dragonfly like wings show to the whole world. His skin too hard turned a light green.

"Okay, I get that you two wanted to make sure Miss Granger was safe. I get that you used the troll's club to knock it out. But could you please explain at what part of all this turning yourselves into a human sized frost pixie, dryad, and woodland pixie sounded like a good idea?"

"It was an accident?" Harry muttered sheepishly. "The club was suppose to turn into cardboard."

It was her hope this was reversible. The magic these people used was completely alien to Susan. It wasn't like techno-wizardry or any other form of magic heard of or encountered. In truth, Susan had come to believe these 'witches' and 'wizards' were more magical creatures then human. Even being able to attempt to make a solid oak club of that size into cardboard was impressive. The fact it apparently backfired and turned three eleven year olds into fae was alarming.

_**XxXxX**_

Even if she lived to be a billion Ranma doubted she'd ever understand politicians. It use to be so simple. Or at least her own role in politics had been. Work in a brothel and occasionally assassinate someone who crossed her father. This was the extent of Amnara's political involvement in her life. In this life she'd dealt even less with politics. Or at least she had before this current job. This month alone there had been sixteen attempts to slip a vile toad of a woman into the decision making process.

If Ranma could judge things correctly, she thought the Umbridge woman enjoyed torture. Personal power also appeared to be a large motivator for the woman. And then there were the various bills and department reports that came through on a daily basis. A third of those proved to be geared towards oppressing a significant portion of the wizarding world. They were subtle though. The ministry's law enforcement department was still massively understaffed too. And that was a shame.

So when a message appeared on Ranma's desk she immediately grew concerned. The assassination attempt on her way to speak with the Minister didn't help her mood. It did give an idea though. This wasn't the first time she'd been glad that one loop had her become a senshi. The young seeming woman was also glad she'd figured out how to retain some of the transformed benefits when 'out of uniform'. The enhanced healing and mind control protection came in handy now and then. Sure the mystical moon rock didn't work for her, but that was just fine by her.

"Excuse me Sir, but I'm going to need a two way portkey. A family emergency has come up in the states. Unless of course you _like_ the idea of Dark forces bent on taking over the world. In that case I'll stay here instead of heading to Sunnydale California."

_**XxXxX**_

The spell had gone off exactly as planned. This had lead to the brit sitting in a lawn chair on his store's roof. There were wards around the shop to prevent the chaos from affecting him personalty. So when a group actually approached the shop he was a bit shocked. _I could be wrong, but those don't look like anything I have sold. I'd have remembered those outfits._ One of the two mystery people had crimson hued skin, a classical devil tail, and bat like wings. The small horns on the forehead were also an odd touch. The two almost looked like they came from an anime.

But that couldn't be right. Ethan hadn't had any costumes from that anime. Nor had he seen any devil girls in the anime as part of the team. And wasn't Sailor Moon suppose to be a blond? _Bloody hell,_ he thought when the two winged ones took to the air. Only then did it occur to him that Ethan couldn't actually see the faces of the two demons. And still he didn't know what type they were. They did look rather annoyed though.

"Hello ladies, what can I do to you?" Ethan asked.

He got the impression of lips being licked. There was still the disturbing feeling of menace coming from these two though. Not to mention the question of why they were here. It was a question which was answered momentarily when the front door to his shop was kicked in. Minutes later Ethan found himself being dragged into the back room. The one dressed like an evil Sailor Moon took one look at the statue and pulled out a phone from someplace unknown.

"Hello Janus, yes it is me. Look I am on the 'hellmouth' gate right now and I have a situation. Did you happen to authorize a major trans-dimensional possession slash transformation spell in your name today? Is that so? Good, but what will happen when it goes? No, it should not be a problem I think. Sure, poker night at my place next Friday. See you then." Sailor Eclipsed Moon looked at the others as she hung up the phone.

"If any of you happen to be wearing cloths conjured by any magic I would suggest exiting this building. According to Janus any mystically charged cloths worn at the time of this spell probably physically changed the wearer. Anyone caught within the blast radius, about the diameter of this building, will likely have said changes become permanent. And please remove this waste of a human as you go." Eclipsed Moon told them.

_**November 20th**_

With the last class of the day finished Susan Mason decided to continue her investigation into why this castle was so important. The Potter boy she guessed was part of the reason. Too many dangerous things happened around him, and few of them were his fault. The boy had all the hallmarks of a Hero and that made her smile a little. In Susan's opinion he was far too young for such heroics. And yet the fates would not be denied their champion.

Some took up the mantle of Champion because they felt the need. Susan was one such person. Others for fame or glory. A few like her brother reluctantly did so for monetary gain. But some were quite literally born to be champions. From what Susan had learned Potter was a child of prophesy. As a baby he'd done something thought to be impossible. Namely he survived a one hundred percent instantly fatal curse. And in doing so he'd somehow broken both the power and body of a would-be 'dark lord'.

If there was one thing the woman knew intimately it was that 'dark lord' types hated to lose. They would spend every second of their existence plotting a way to destroy whoever defeated them and regain power. The only way to stop this was to remove them from the picture permanently. That was something that obviously was going to be difficult this time. The more Susan learned of this 'Voldemort' the less she liked it. Some seriously black magic was involved.

The Potter boy's companions seemed to also be heroes, but not because of destiny. For them it seemed to be a choice. And that warmed Susan's heart to see. Enforced destiny was something that annoyed the woman. Fellow demon hunters from Japan suffered from predestiny As had a few others met over the years. One thing that was common was that heroes who were predestined for the role rarely had proper training. This tended to lead to them dying young too.

Those who chose the job for one reason or another on their own there? They usually got proper training. They typically didn't even start fighting Evil until they finished training. It wasn't always true. Some entered the fray unskilled and barely armed. Those who survived though quickly developed the things needed. Such thoughts passed through her mind as Susan continued her research into how the castle was important, and why the spirit was able to ignore fatal injury from weapons specifically designed to be able to disperse ghosts.

Whatever the cause, it also had to be capable of saving someone from being completely dead after their body gets destroyed. _Hang on, this is interesting,_ Susan thought as she read yet another tome of knowledge. This one was on the nature of wands and how they interacted with magic. The author had gone by the improbable name of Flance Ferngally, not that it mattered wither or not it was a psudonym. What did matter was if the information was correct.

Her brother was no help. He could give lectures on the magical properties of gems. Of wood and other substances he had no clue. Then again, perhaps his expertise would be useful. While his knowledge of mystic properties on animal and vegetable matter was non-existant, he was an expert on the nature of magic and how to imbue it into objects. An example of this expertise was the portable showers he'd become famous for, as well as the gun swords he made for sale. Then there were other more utilitarian things like a flashlight that could also project a portal to a location previously set up.

Still, that was a line of questioning for another day. What she found most interesting was that the three kids from Griffendor house didn't suffer much from destabilized magic after their accidental transmogrification. In fact Potter's magic seemed even more stable now. This lent credence to the burgeoning theory about the true nature of this world's 'witches' and 'wizards'. According to her apprentice, Rei had encountered both a mage specializing in chaos magic and a 'techno-pagan' witch who reminded Susan of her brother.

It was troubling that the three still hadn't been returned to their birth forms. The frost pixie that tended to bother Andrew said they were either 'touched' or 'claimed', it was hard to tell exactly what Arrena meant by it. Another indication of how right her theory was actually proved to be something rather simple. It was impossible to do blood tests on 'wizards'. The genetic material broke down rather quickly once it was removed from the person. This little fact was also true of Susan and other supernatural entities.

After a half hour of searching she found Andrew Wellington exactly where she suspected he might be. That namely was the 'room of requirement' working on a project. With him was the gnome like Professor Flitwick. The two looked up as the door opened. _I know that look,_ Andrew thought. _And I really don't like it either. _All that look brings is trouble. Andrew put down the engraving tools he was using and sighed. _Guess I wont finish this stun blade today._

"So Susan, what do you need? And let me tell you, it still creeps me out a little how much you look like my nutcase sister. Taller, but otherwise exactly like her. You even dress like her."

Susan eyed her half brother and groaned. "Must you keep comparing me to her? We're nothing alike. For one thing I studied languages and use to run an antique store. Not to mention the fact I don't scrub holes in the floor because of imaginary dirt."

"You are her," Andrew deadpanned. "Well, sort of. Honestly? It hurts my head just thinking about it. I mean, what are the odds for both our fathers looking identical, and having identical names?"

Professor Flitwick's head moved back and forth between the two siblings. Between the two of them everything he'd known about both magic and the nature of the world had been thrown into question. The woman because she demonstrated time and again highly effective methods of dealing with Dark creatures without magic. That was something no wizard had ever managed to his knowledge. The man on the other hand used magic without a wand.

Not well it had to be noted. But then again Andrew Wellington never claimed to be a powerful wizard. He freely admitted his actual spells were rather weak compared to anyone else. He more then made up for it with talent in combining magic and technology. He crafted things ranging from portal generating flashlights to mystic weapons of surprising power. What was more surprising about this was that he claimed anyone with even the slightest magic talent could use them. A claim backed up by his sister, who admitted to knowing nothing about magic, being able to use everything her brother made.

"As fascinating as this is, how may we help you Professor Mason?" Flitwick asked.

"Oh, it's not much. I think I found a way to stop that reverent though. Andrew, what happens when you use the wrong gem type when making one of your technowizard items?" Susan asked.

Her half-brother answered "Nothing, it just doesn't work. Each type of gem is only capable of channeling certain types of magic. Even then you need a gems of varying degrees of perfection for different spells and items. An anti-vampire water weapon for example needs a gem of higher quality then a shower. Why?"

"And what happens if you try channeling magic into one that's a complete opposite to what the material can normally handle?"

This made Flitwick intrigued so he asked, "Why would that matter?"

Susan's smile was a little unnerving as she answered. "What would be the effects of channeling killing magic through a phoenix feather over and over? Especially with the intent to do wrong, vs channeling magic through a phoenix feather with intent to help or heal others? I think Riddle's wand is working against him. In fact, I think it might even help to destroy him if given a chance. Oh, and Professor? Would you mind telling the headmaster he's got one week left to free the phoenix he's enslaved? Otherwise I'll take matters into my own hands."

_**Sunnydale**_

"So, no weapon forged by man right?" Rei asked.

"Er, yes that is correct." Rupert Giles said as he polished his glasses yet again.

"Then what about a weapon made by me? Would that work? Or even something that never touched a forge?"

Rei's question brought everyone in the library to a halt. That Buffy wasn't one of them was something new. And yet no one could really dispute her reasoning. According to Rei it was likely the Slayer would actually hinder their chances of surviving the fast approaching fight. It had been an assessment made from long experience. Too many times had she seen it happen. Too many of them had been because of a love sick friend. Not all of the occasions had been Usagi's fault. But enough had been to become annoying.

"Now that I think about it, most swords these days aren't forged. They're smelted and cast by machines. Then there's the Tolken interpretation to the clause. As I remember, the general which couldn't be defeated by mortal man was defeated by a woman. Would that work here?"

If he was honest with himself, Giles would have acknowledged that it was possible. The last the Judge had plagued humanity women were expected to just cook, clean, and make babies. They weren't allowed to be soldiers or blacksmiths. The fact this girl was a succubus also hinted a possible answer. That too was something Giles couldn't quite grasp. He still didn't understand how or why the Council had concluded an obvious demon was the Slayer. It was pure dumb luck that Rei Hino was a champion of the Light despite her nature.

_It's a sad day, _the Watcher thought, _when a demon cares more about stopping a vampire then the Slayer. _He regretted cutting Buffy out of the loop on this. And yet Rei had raised a good point. Her scouting trip had revealed conclusivly that the Judge was working with Angellus. And three times already Buffy had either allowed Angellus to leave or stopped someone else from taking the vampire out. While the Slayer might have been trust worthy enough to handle the Judge, her actions regarding Angellus would probably get someone hurt or killed.

the fact Angellus was working with the Judge indicated a change in his M.O. Too. Where in the past the Watcher diaries indicated he was sadistic and enjoyed mental torture, now he seemed intent on wiping out humanity. A fact which raised the vampire from threat to Apocalyptic Threat level. And with how smart Angellus was, it had raised a serious question. How long would it be before the vampire came up with a plan too subtle to find out about in time?

The answer to that question was something Rei had no desire to discover. A message had also been prepared to warn her mentor of the danger. In it Rei had stated that if she didn't contact again in a day's time that things had gone badly. If that was the case it was likely the town of Sunnydale would be gone already. At which point things would fall into the 'damage control' category. That such an event would be a desperate attempt to stop an apocalypse currently in-progress was an indicator of how bad it could be.

Her musings were halted when Xander commented "What about a rocket launcher?"

The succubus thought about it for a moment. "Might work, but where do we get one? And who knows how to use it?"

When Willow raised a hand tentatively a few eyebrows got raised in a very Spock-like manner. When the girl then proceeded to pull improbably a rocket launcher out of her waistband those same eyes went up another quarter inch. The large weapon was then put back where ever it had initially came from. The action reminded Rei of several crime fighters she'd met during the twenty year period she'd spent in 'Paragon City'. It was during that period of time she'd truly mastered the Nightbane style of unarmed combat. Not that her mastery certificate had been awarded then.

No, that hadn't been done till later. While mastery in the main 'anything goes' branches was dependent upon a Master granting it (not that the current two masters had done that), the Nightbane school required one to actually prove they could effectively teach others to be granted mastery. Sure the methods of teaching were unorthodox, but they worked. Nothing taught a student to focus past distraction better then trying to practice while being sexually stimulated. It was embarrassing, true. But it was also highly effective. Then again, such teaching methods were only natural considering the style's founder was a succubus slash incubus.

Needless to say all current practitioners of the Nightbane style were borderline nymphomaniacs. Even the newest one who was still considered a student. That thought brought with it memories of Rei's Mastery quest. Namely memories of the retraining of one Nabiki Tendo who'd been partly self taught using a technique scroll that couldn't have been written yet. The Tendo girl had worn a near permanent blush for six years, each time the retraining had to be redone. Rei shook her head to try focusing on the issue at hand.

"Willow Rosenburg, why do you have a rocket launcher in your underwear?"

The answer caused almost everyone in the room to collapse to the ground once it was translated from 'willow-babble'. "B-be-be-becauseIdidn'thavespaceinmybrabetweenthes tinger andtheassaultrifleandpistols andenergyswordandandandIhave afewgrenades,mostlyflashbang butafewconcussiveaswell,inthemtoo?"

Xander asked "Why does she sound like the main characters from 'Dirty Pair Flash'?"

"Oh dear," came a British voice as Giles tried to polish his glasses into a new prescription.

_**Hogwarts**_

He stood there in a place no man was ever meant to be. His golden armor would have fit in perfectly in ancient Egypt. The runes inscribed on it went nicely with the ancient hieroglyphs. Across his back was slung an unusual looking sword. At it's base the blade was a longsword. Yet the hilt was shaped more like a modified pistol grip, complete with trigger and finger guard. It also had a seven chamber revolver style barrel. Also slung across his back was a rifle of some sort.

At the man's hips hung a pair of gauntlets which appeared to be metallic demon claws._ I can't believe I'm doing this,_ he thought to himself as he prepared to depress the button on a detonator. _I thought I put risking my life, and being blown up again, behind me two decades __ago? So why am I here setting up a shaped charge in a haunted girl's bathroom? Oh yes, that's why. Susan found evidence of a gorgon or something similar may be hidden in the school, and more evidence this bathroom leads to it's hiding place._

"Okay, if everyone's ready I'll blow the wall. Susan's the expert on these things, not me. She says we have to avoid looking at the head of whatever is in this 'chamber of secrets'. If that's not possible, the protective eyewear should prevent in some cases death and in others cause the stone gaze to rebound back on the creature. She also said that while gorgons rely on weapons and their gaze in combat, other things may be highly poisonous. Not to mention resistant to your kinds of magic.

"That's where the grenades and rifles I handed out come in. They use a different sort of magic then you people. While any directly offensive magics like curses and hexes would be ineffective, lightning, fire, and so forth probably is. As is telekinetic bullets, those hurt many things resistant to magic since they aren't magic. The grenades do a variety of things ranging from creating an area of super sticky ground to creating a dazzling light array or area of mystic darkness. The goggles should filter any light effects and allow vision in a darkness field."

The silencing charms placed on the room muffled the sound of the explosion. When the group of teachers and aurors entered the lavatory they found that the wall that once held a series of sinks was now a smoking crater. There was also a deep pit across from the haunted toilet stall. That pit confirmed the suspected entrance being in this room. Andrew lit a flair and dropped it down the shaft. For almost a minute it continued to fall, yet not as quickly as they had expected. Andrew sighed and put on his gauntlets.

"Okay, I'll go first and secure the bottom. Since there looks like a 'slow fall' spell you all should be safe to jump. Me, I don't trust that." Andrew told them before starting to use his clawed gauntlets to climb down the shaft.

Once he was at the bottom the two dozen men and women started their decent two at a time. In another time and place the assault would have been made over a year later by two ill prepared second year students and a con-man. This time the group was far larger and much better equipped. While they knew less about what was within the room, they had taken every conceivable precaution based on foreknowledge from events half a century previous.

The raid had been in the works for two months. In fact it'd been sparked by his sister discovering some discrepancies in the 'chamber of secrets' attacks in the forties. Most notably among them being that the person who supposedly caught the one responsible happened to have gone on to become a magical terrorist. Another problem in the official reports was the nature of the attacks vs what purportedly had been behind them. Especially since the spider-monster believed to have been behind the attacks was incapable of turning anyone to stone. Nor would it have killed without leaving a single mark on the body.

"That is the biggest basilisk I've ever heard of," someone commented once they were gathered together again.

"What can we expect then? Besides it being really strong?" Andrew asked.

"Acidic blood, poison that causes internal organs to melt, and looking in it's eyes causes instant death," Amelia Bones informed the demi-god. "Or turns you to stone if you see the eyes indirectly. Only the tears of a phoenix can stop the poison."

"Right," Andrew deadpanned. "Then shoot for the eyes first before it wakes. I'll go in close, you all take it on from a distance. And I can't believe I'm willingly going to fight it hand to scale."

It was one and a baker's dozen telekinetic blasts which struck the monstrous snake in the face. While any given blast might not have done much appreciable damage, the sheer number that impacted the general area of the eyes caused them to rupture. That was one reason for the raid's delay. Susan and Andrew had agreed that everyone who would take part needed training with the weapons that would be used. After that first volley Andrew slung the rifle across his back and drew his odd sword.

It crackled with electricity as the self professed coward charged forward. Professor Snape couldn't help but admire how much nerve that took. It was obvious the tall demigod was terrified, yet he was also willing to risk life and limb. What impressed the potions teacher most of all was not the reckless charge. No, if the man had leaped into the fray without any fear that would have been met with disdain. It was the fact the man was willing to do so despite being terrified. That in Snape's mind was the true sign of courage.

Of course the fact the technowizard was wearing armor which rather effectively protected him from harm didn't hurt in the least. It was something the aurors there witnessed and admired too. More then a few could be heard wondering where to get their own suit after witnessing the golden armor's effectiveness. It was near the end of a long and exhausting battle that something truly unusual happened. Someone had created a cone of intense cold to try freezing the monster when there was a large explosion. What made that odd was that no one was using any spells or items which could have done that.

When the dust cleared they saw the basilisk was now headless. It was also observed that Andrew Wellington was missing ninety percent of his armor. His sword, gun, and clawed gauntlets appeared to have only suffered minor damage from the explosion though. He himself was standing, but just barely. Raw bone could be seen in a few places on his ribs. Smoke wafted from his much charred body too. His hair was also still burning in a few spots, which he absently put out. Despite the grevious injuries he still stood. And they were visible starting to knit too.

"I swear, I must be cursed!" The charred man yelled. "Every damn time I get into a fight since first walking through a rift, I get blown up. Every time. Even when there's no explosives anywhere near me. Walk into hell and leave without a scratch in my armor's paint. Fight tanks and entire armies without getting hit once. Leave Earth for another planet for a few months, and I nearly die from being blown up every single time I fight."

_**Sunnydale**_

Angellus snarled as he dodged yet another spiral of fire. His planned attack on humanity had not gone as well as hoped. The one he'd wanted to demoralize wasn't anywhere in sight. The blue skinned unkillable demon had been blown to tiny pieces by a tube pulled out of Willow's pants. And that Japanese slut was doing her damnedest to char broil him. Not only that, but he'd already seen Spike flee the scene. If it was Buffy facing him, he'd probably have been able to convince her to let him go. Not this demon girl though.

He already had lost his childe to the demon's wraith. While the woman had been quite insane, her visions were still useful. Yet Rei Hino had casually incinerated the vampire woman. What both frightened and angered Angellus about the demon woman though was that Rei wasn't angry. In fact she was behaving as if this was just her professional duty. Spotting Willow pulling out a large caliber pistol from her shirt also alarmed Angellus.

That too was something he'd been entirely unaware of being possible. He looked for the discarded rocket launcher, but it wasn't visible. Then he also started trying to avoid not only the flames but also bullets being sent his way. Considering he didn't see Willow reloading, he had to wonder how she could fire enough times to spell out 'You Will Die' in the wall with missed shots. The sound of a twang alerted the vampire to a third vector of danger. This time he wasn't quite able to dodge in time. As a result he had a crossbow bolt sticking out of his right lung.

Seconds after that the left elbow became useless as a .45 hollow armor piercing round blew through it. Between the spirals of flame launched by the demon, high caliber pistol rounds being sent his way by WIllow, and bolts fired by Xander from a hand crossbow it was too dangerous to stick around. Yet that very escape was proving difficult to pull off. After avoiding another hail of bullets Angellus glanced at the wall and scowled again. The bullet holes formed the words 'Grr he wont stand still'. The vampire got the feeling each phrase left in Willow's wake was purely by accident.

_XxXxX_

Across town Buffy was staking a fledgling vampire in one of the many graveyards. As her fifth vampire collapsed in a pile of ash the teenage girl glared at her watcher. She was The Slayer, yet had been cut out of the loop by her friends. And it was all on the word of a demon. _How can they trust a demon more then me?_ Buffy wondered with disbelief and disgust. If she recognized the double standard inherent in her disgust, Buffy wasn't aware of it.

"Do you know how Miss Hino became a servant class succubus? She use to be human after all."

The question was out of the blue. It also made Buffy blink in surprise. She hadn't known it was possible for a human to become a demon. A vampire, yes. But not a demon. But if a human could be turned into a demon then that just meant that Rei definitely didn't have a soul anymore so couldn't be trusted. This belief came about due to the fact Buffy fully believed demons couldn't have souls. And yet again she ignored the double standard of believing Rei couldn't have a soul, but a vampire could.

"Back in Japan she was part of a team of demon hunters. A team she's worked with for a few centuries at least according to her. You've met another of her team I believe. You do remember the red haired girl with wings I assume?"

Buffy nodded as she staked another vampire mechanically. "why would demons fight other demons like that? It makes no sense."

Giles nodded. "Quite. From what I am told, Eclipsed Moon also use to be human. Her demonic nature comes from an ancient curse she literally fell into due to her father's actions. But I digress. What do you know about succubi?"

"They're demons and evil?" Buffy asked hesitantly.

Her watcher shook his head sadly. "No child, they are not always evil. A succubus is by her nature a sexual predator. However they are not forced to be such. The only requirement is their food source, not how they gain it. There are also two types of succubi. These are natural ones, such as Eclipsed Moon, and the 'servant' type who once were human. Rei became what she is now after being fed upon too deeply by accident."

That made Buffy snarl. "Then she's a monster and needs to be Slain."

Since there were no more vampires to stake the teen started stalking back towards the library. As she walked she only half listened to her watcher as he spoke. "No Buffy Anne Summers, she is a dedicated champion of the Light. And she's fought the darkness for almost all of her existence. Miss Hino is also apprenticed to a divine being That girl is more a champion then you are for she doesn't complain about her duty."

_**London**_

The auror department could be excused for their slack jaws. After all, it wasn't often the wizarding world's law enforcement department was treated to a spectacle of high end martial arts. It was even less often they were witness to how dangerous unarmed combat could be. The first thing that Bones thought upon watching the display was _This is beautiful._ The Nightbane woman was dueling an ugly man of Norwegian decent. It was clear they knew each other too.

The man was possibly more skilled. Miss Nightbane on the other hand was faster and had more stamina. It was hard to say who was more experienced. Where Nightbane bounced all over the place, Von Mason was the calm center of a tornado. The dichotomy was even more evident when Von Mason suddenly changed stance and tactics. When that happened all of Nightbane's speed advantage vanished. It thus became evident the style initially being used by Von Mason it's self unable to take advantage of the man's natural abilities. Everything that had been done was pure training.

The two combatants separated and bowed towards each other. "Mason-San, why do you use a weaker style first?"

The Nordic man pondered the question before replying. "Because Taido isn't a 'weak' style Nightbane-San. While it isn't as aggressive as Karate or Anything Goes it has it's benefits. Against multiple foes it is an ideal choice. And against a chi master it offers good defense. Besides, I am a grandmaster so I may as well use my style."

With the sparring match no concluded Amelia Bones couldn't help but wonder just who the Minister's secretary really was. It was virtually unknown for a muggle to have any position in the Ministry. To have one who was practically a witch when it came to unarmed combat working with the Minister was inconceivable. So just who was this woman? And who was the man? No muggle should have been able to find the building, let alone enter it. And yet this Eric Von Mason had casually strolled through the front entrance and asked after Ranma Nightbane.

"Sorry about the wrist. I didn't mean to break it Ranma," he commented before taking hold of the injured extremity.

"This is nothing Mason-San. I have suffered worse injuries from the obese panda then what you have inflicted. But I thank you for mending the damage. It still amazes me what you are capable of with just your ki. But perhaps you can explain something to me. Since I heard the tale I have wondered this. How exactly is it you could defeat Mother in hand to hand when she had the experience she did at the time?"

Bones paid close attention to the answer as Mason responded. "Simple, I had backup. Don't get me wrong, what she knows, she knows very well. But in all the time she practiced, she just perfected the absolute basics. Then she never actually used them. The most flawless kata is useless if you don't have practical experience. And even the best in one on one can be beaten by team work. A lesson your old foes never learned."

Listening to their byplay caused the head Auror to make a decision. A couple of quick stunners disabled the two before they could realize what was going on. After casting body bind spells on the two of them she levitated both Nightbane and her guest. Suspicions which had been growing for months had finally received enough evidence to warrant action. The first thing Bones did after activating the strongest wards her office had was to cast a detection spell. Surprisingly both registered as highly magical beings, not humans.

The woman also appeared to be under some sort of disguise charm. Negating that caused a pair of large leathery bat wings to erupt from Nightbane's back. The man wasn't under any disguise charms, but her detection spell told her something odd was about him. What it was the head auror couldn't tell. That could be dealt with later though. The first order of business was to begin interrogating the infiltrators. Naturally enough that would have to wait for the stunners to wear off.

_To_

_Be_

_Continued_

**Author Notes:**

Well, here we are. Book three of the Wings Of series is now officially in the works. And what a doozy of a first chapter it is. I just kept writing, and writing, and writing. And before I knew it I had a twenty page monstrosity for a first chapter. I almost decided to just keep writing until the tale is finished. But then I realized that at this rate it'll be a full blown novel if I did that. Well, hope people enjoy this outing.

For fans of the series, this is set about 10 years after the time loops chronicled in Wings of Recursion ended. As usual if you spot any spelling errors or such please let me know. If something makes no sense, please tell me. I do read reviews, and they can impact the way a story continues. I go back and fix any spelling errors people find. If it's a grammar issue I'll review it to see if it's intentional or accidental. If accidental I try to fix them. And I've had more then one chapter get spawned by someone raising a valid question regarding an event.

In fact, this story it's self got it's initial spark from someone questioning how Makoto could lose to Emerald Avenger and his wife when she's been practicing martial arts from the beginning of time to it's ending (multiple times). A valid question which I felt should be answered. The story just ran away from me from my initial idea :)

Please, no flames for the portrayal of Buffy TVS and Harry Potter. I make no claims to be intimately familiar with Buffy anymore. It's been more then a few years since I watched it after all. And I'm not as comfortable writing HP fanfic as I am with Ranma ½ fanfic.


	2. Chapter 2

"speech (English mainly but varies for location of action)"

"_telepathic speech"_

_thoughts_

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Ranma ½, Ah! My Goddess, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or Harry Potter. Hey, is that a Silent Hill reference too I see? Why yes is and I don't own that property either. Captain Scarlet as well? I don't own Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, sorry. That would belong to Century 21 television. I make no money from this, nor do I plan on trying to. This is purely for fun.

**Warning:** There will be OOC for some characters. It is an AU though, so that can almost be expected.

**Timeline Issues:**

_*Wings of Paradise is mainly set around 1998 or so and takes place during the first major storyline for Sailor Moon_

_*Wings of Recursion is set in a twenty year period between 1998 and 2018, looping over and over_

_*Wings of Destiny is set in 2008, and starts ten years after the time loops finally end_

_*For the most part I was not verifying what day of the week any given date falls upon. As such if you notice I have classes on what proves to be a weekend, or claim a day falls on Saturday when it was actually Wednesday I would appreciate you letting me know so I can fix such references. Honestly, it didn't occur to me to verify such minor details until half way through writing chapter 2. Nor did I sit down to pin down exact dates for when each story is set till part way through chapter 2 of this, the third story._

_**Needless to say this series is set in an Alternate Timeline**_

_**Wings of Destiny**_

_By _

_Faerie Knight_

It was a little known fact in the wizarding world, but Hogwarts was alive. Oh everyone who schooled there knew the castle changed it's interior configuration fairly regularly. But most didn't know the castle was sentient. Witches and wizards just assumed the castle's enchantments had some sort of schedule embedded for the changes. The truth was that Hogwarts found enjoyment in messing with students. Especially the new ones.

For those who could track such things it was obvious that the castle was angry. And there were a plethora of reasons why too. The biggest one was a huge gaping hole now in one of her bathrooms. And yes, Hogwarts identified herself as female. Another was the fairly recent discovery that the current headmaster had enslaved her friend. Then there was the Dark creature skulking about the castle. The fact the Headmaster did nothing about that also sat ill with the castle.

Thus it was that a supposedly inanimate object sent a message to a man who once held one of the most important positions possible without being a deity. Hogwarts had no way of knowing the connection between this individual and the current Defense teacher. If it had known the decision might have came about much sooner. When the message was received the recipient found himself much displeased with it's content.

**November 24th **

Eric sighed as he flew through the air. This was not a particularly good time for him. First of all he'd been separated from his wife for five years. The letter he received a week previous was also kind of alarming as well. Things had settled down greatly after the recursive loops had ended. The girls had managed to defeat their enemy without anyone dying for once. He'd managed to pass the torch to someone else who was responsible too. And yet his personal life had descended into the toilet.

A thousand years of making hard choices takes it's toll on anyone. And the stress had hurt his marriage. They were still bound in matrimony, yet no longer a couple. Perhaps in a few decades she'd said. Maybe when she finished training her apprentice. And in all honesty Eric couldn't blame her for leaving. They'd been together for longer then most couples lived. Both had stared into the abyss for so long it was a good friend. Eric knew both he and Susan just needed their space.

If there was an upside to this trip It was the Eric had not seen in England quite some time. So long had it been in fact that he wasn't quite sure if he hoped things were the same or not. But that still didn't make the letter any less alarming. It wasn't every day a castle sends you notice that you were required to be there within a week's time. The timing for the notification was suspicious too. His contacts had indicated something big had just happened in the American west but not what it was.

It was for this reason he was traveling in the uniform given by his former employers so long ago in his personal time line. The vest, tights, cape, and mask were all in varying shades of green. As were the boots and gloves. The belt he wore was a steel gray, or at least the buckle was. The belt it's self couldn't actually be seen beneath all the tan utility pouches adorning it. Each pouch held items he found useful when in uniform. At his side was an ornate sword with a hilt shaped like an angel with the wings forming the cross guard.

He didn't like walking into anything blind. Which was why the man had arrived in England several days early. He had a few contacts in the area who would only speak with 'Emerald Avenger'. Others he would meet with in another guise. The first stop was a man named Flanagan O'Riley in a pub called the Leaky Cauldren. While Eric wasn't too familiar with London's night life he had good directions. Oddly enough as he passed by the area the pub should be, there was nothing there.

Eyes narrowed as the emerald clad man pulled out the piece of paper with the address. He checked the buildings in the area, and scowled. All the building numbers were correct, yet one was missing. The one he needed. _Something's wrong here._ Eric reached out and felt the chi of the area. And right where the empty lot stood the chi felt off. It didn't flow like an empty lot. It flowed with so much chi, both positive and negative that he shook his head to clear his vision. _What the hell?_

"_It's shrouded," _Eric heard within his mind.

_Well no shit,_ Eric thought back. _Can you do anything about that, or am I on my own?_

"_I could, but there just __**might**__ be a reason for the concealment." _The sword snarked back.

_Tell me again why I had to find a sarcastic weapon of Light?_

"_As I recall you stole me, remember? Your just lucky I agreed serving you would be better then sitting in a dark room for centuries. Or being used as a dragon's toothpick again. Ugh!"_

_Fine, if you aren't going to help at least be quiet. _The costumed man landed and closed his eyes. He examined the chi of the area with a closer attention to detail this time. Slowly he got a vague impression of a doorway. Cautiously he reached out. Moments later the man found a doorknob which he turned. A quick experiment had the unseen door opening inward. With eyes still closed he entered the building. With the entrance closed behind him Eric opened his eyes.

And blinked three times slowly. "Oh you have got to be kidding me! When did the nightgown convention come to town?"

He could hear the sword at his side laughing it's proverbial ass off. "_These are the people you're suppose to blend in with? HAHAHHAHA! I can see it now! The 'great' Von Mason, master of the Victorian ball gown!"_

"Keep it up chuckles and I'll dip you in pink glittery nail polish," Eric whispered to the sword under his breath.

The sword actually shuddered in it's scabbard at the thought. Briefly the sentient weapon considered insinuating that it's wielder wouldn't dare. But Eric not only would dare, but had done something similar in the past when mocked about his 'uniform'. And ever since then the sword had developed a bit of a phobia involving glitter, the color hot pink, and technicolor cartoon bears with cute images on their stomach. It was better for everyone's sanity not to ask for details of _that_ event.

With a purposeful gait he strode towards the back area. That was where the meeting was suppose to take place. Eric could hear the confused conversation surrounding him. These weird people didn't seem to keep up with the news. And he had no idea what a 'muggle' was, or why they shouldn't be able to find the pub. His chi awareness told Eric someone else was in the back room. He didn't see anyone, but trusted his more mystical senses.

"Show yourself O'Riley. You indicated you had news for me?" The costumed man spoke.

The unseen man said "Not how it works green knight. You don't see me. You don't know me. I don't exist. Remember? Someone you've been watching was arrested four days ago by the Ministry. Don't know who exactly. Cute red head from what I hear. Fights real well too."

"Oh for Pete's sake, Can't that woman go one year without getting into some sort of trouble? I swear she's a chaos magnet."

_**Hogwarts**_

Today was the big day. Today was when they would finally return to being human, hopefully. It'd been almost a month since Halloween and the troll. And already the boy's dorm was upset with Ron Weasley. Emotional outbursts were normal for preteens and teens. What was not so normal was emotional outbursts leading to snow storms while indoors. It was similarly uncomfortably abnormal that Ron kept causing ice slicks every time he sneezed. Humorous, but abnormal.

As the three students shuffled into the infirmary they looked eager to be back to what passed for normal. The Potter boy however also betrayed his worry. Before this year he'd had very few good things happen. Even now the good was mostly overcast by the bad. Harry had made friends for the first time in his life, yet one of the teachers hated him for the crime of being alive. He was learning magic, which was really neat. And a student tried killing him with an axe, which was so very much bad.

For every positive that had entered his life, something equally bad had occurred. So Harry was concerned. When would the other shoe drop this time? And how serious would it be? It was bad enough that only he and his friends seemed able to see what was going on. Whatever was hidden in the third floor, it was clear as day that Harry and his friends were the only ones able to see it was at risk. It was also obvious to the boy that the headmaster was most likely insane.

The infirmary was crowded today, and not because of patients. A dozen of the best curse breakers, potion masters, and medi-witches were there. They had been called in to help restore the three students. The presence of so many experts had come in handy a few days ago too. Several of the beds were still occupied by injured aurors. Casualties from whatever had happened had been few, but almost half the people who came for the mysterious raid had been carried away from the battle site.

Before they could undergo the treatment their Defense teacher approached. The woman wore a pair of sturdy jeans and a blue tee shirt. Her ever present tan trench coat was also being worn. Susan Mason examined the three transfigured students with obvious concern. Everything the giant of a woman knew screamed that mixing magics was a really bad idea. A person being turned into one of the 'fair folk' was also unprecedented. In fact it shouldn't have even been possible.

"I wont pretend to know exactly what you've been going through," Susan said. "All the research I could do wont tell me anything beyond the physiological changes. But I do know what it's like to question your identity. I wasn't that much older then you three when my mother was crippled by demons. That's when I found out I wasn't human, and that she was an avatar of Ishtar. So I do know a little of what you're experiencing. I know this has been hard on you.

"But it could be worse. Your still yourselves after all. And your still alive. Everything I've ever learned about magic says trying to reverse this could end badly. Hells, it shouldn't have been possible to begin with. What little there is on magical species changing says becoming one of the faerie folk is as close to impossible as you can get with magic involved. And my references all hint any such change is normally one way. Of course they're also all fifth hand at best. Finding reliable texts can be difficult in most the last two dimensions I've lived in.

"I guess what I'm trying to say is think carefully. For all anyone knows there is no way to reverse what happened. Trying could work, or could hurt you. So consider the price you may pay first. But then again I'm no expert on magic. Demons, monsters, and the paranormal yes, but not magic. I know just enough to get by, and to know how much I don't know."

After the speech Harry sank onto one of the beds and thought. He thought long and hard about what to do. _What if she's right?_ He pondered silently. _What if I'm stuck? What if the cure hurts me?_ It was a scary thought. His aunt and uncle hated him already. They called him a freak while beating him. Yet what would they do if he returned to the house with green skin? Nearby his first real friend also contemplated the choice ahead.

Ron on the other hand didn't quite understand what all the worry was about. He wasn't an idiot by any means. Yet he also didn't like to think about his actions. Consequences were something others suffered, not him. That was why he drank the elixir without any hesitation. After all, to his mind nothing magic could fail. A niggling bit of doubt formed when Ron collapsed in pain. It felt as if his entire body was on fire. And that was an experience the boy had never wanted to have again.

Harry turned to Hermione and said "This is a bad idea."

_**Sunnydale**_

Buffy was laying on her back. She was fully clothed at least, and it hadn't been by choice. Her favorite stake was laying on the floor nearby as a pile of ashes. There was a simple explanation for both situations too. Thirty seconds previous Buffy had attempted to Slay the succubus named Rei Hino. It hadn't gone as planned. The surprise assault from behind had been stopped by the impact of a wing to Buffy's face. A follow up charge had ended with the slayer being flipped onto her back and disarmed.

"Why are you trying to kill an ally?" The millennial shrine maiden asked.

As the faux blond stood and pulled out a new stake she growled out "Slayer, your a demon. Get the point?"

The horribly bad quip might have made Rei chuckle if it wasn't herself being threatened. "Are you a slayer? I am starting to wonder about that. Xander-san, when you found her was she ice cold, warm, or room temperature?"

It didn't take long for the others in the room to grasp the question's significance. If the slayer's body had still been warm it meant Xander Harris had arrived moments after the Master had taken the girl out. If the body had been ice cold she might have still been barely alive, then there would have been a chance at resuscitation. But there was a saying that went 'they aren't dead until they are warm and dead'. This saying was in regards to reviving people who had been submerged in water.

"You told us the master had drained you. And then there's the fact that you died. Are you still a slayer? Or are you something else?" Rei sidestepped another charge, one leg hooking out to trip the slayer. "Yes I'm a demon. I don't advertise that fact. I never wanted to be one, but I've accepted my fate. And it was because of my own carelessness. I've never fed on someone who wasn't willing, and I only feed when I have to heal. So I ask again, why are you trying to kill me?"

_Well, there might have been that one time._ Rei let her tail snake around the other girl's waist and pulled her close. Then the demoness wrapped her arms around the slayer and kissed her on the lips. While Buffy was still dazed from the unexpected toe curling kiss she was quickly disarmed and secured. _Now I just have to figure out how to convince her taking out the vampire is the right thing to do. Was I ever that blind?_

At least privately Rei had to admit she never liked or trusted the vampire. While she herself had made mistakes, there was only one time in the last thousand years she'd ever slept with someone who wasn't over eighteen. And that time she'd been nearly crazy with hunger. The vampire known as Angel on the other hand was a true pedophile in her opinion. He was over two hundred and fifty years, and chose to court a sixteen year old.

It had been a conscious choice on the vampire's part. He'd withheld his true age for the longest time. He'd withheld other important facts too. Such as the curse he'd been under. Curses could be broken, and Rei had to believe the vampire had known how to break his own. That angered the former shrine maiden still further in regards to Angel. As long as the fiend had fought on the side of right she'd been willing to hold back judgment.

"Do you know how old 'Angel' is?" Rei asked. "How about what he's done? Let alone the crimes he's committing now. Your precious vampire had willingly unleashed a demon he believed was invincible. A demon that would destroy all of humanity. And yes, that includes you Miss Summers. So what would you rather do? Would you prefer waiting until the vampire finds a way to actually damn all humanity that we can't stop, or stop him now?"

_**London**_

When he strode into the building all talk stopped. People turned to look at the stranger approaching the front desk. he as Asian in appearance with long strait black hair. The man was wearing a robe that looked very out of place. It was light green and tailored more like a Japanese kimono. He had a short beard which was close cropped too. The ornate sword at his waste only furthered the interest in the man. It seemed he was also growing angry.

The sword was drawn and brought down through the receptionist desk within seconds. He re-sheathed the blade and continued to chew her out. The arrival of several aurors didn't even phase the man. As they drew wands he pulled out a sheet of paper and lit it on fire. He then exhaled a cloud of white mist which blinded the aurors. That was when the man moved into the cloud.

Several grunts could be heard, followed by a soft thud. Several more impacts could be heard after that. When the cloud finally was drawn back into the man the four aurors were laying on the ground groaning in pain. A series of pops signaled the arrival of four more aurors. One of them was a woman the man recognized from his intel gathering. He scowled at the newcomers and cracked his knuckles. The glare sent at their leader could have withered a plant.

"By what right do you hold this one's countrymen hostage?" He demanded with a thick Japanese accent.

Amelia Bones found her attention being drawn back to the sword repeatedly. It had cleaved through marble like it was tissue paper after all. The hilt from what she could see looked like a winged woman. Next she focused on the man himself. He'd used magic of some sort, that much was obvious. But it was a completely unknown type. The man carried no wand either. So if he was a wizard it wasn't any kind Bones knew about. Either that, or the wand was part of that sword, probably the hilt.

"No Barbie, you may not break the blunt sticks. This one thinks they might need them."

The statement created a massive disconnect. This slightly intimidating Asian man who'd just made a demanding question had apparently felt the need to tell his sword not to break their wands. It was so out of the blue, so bizarre that Amelia's mind had trouble wrapping around it at first. And then the sword left the scabbard under it's own power. The wing shaped cross guard flapped and the weapon hovered beside the stranger. Thus proving conclusively the weapon was magic in nature.

"Watch this one's back, but disarm without hurting." The unknown man said.

Then he was moving again. It was graceful and terrifying at the same time. For the second time in a week the head auror watched a person with unnatural combat skills engage his trade. He moved with a grace which shouldn't be physically possible. The man seemed to instinctively know when to twist out of the way. At one point he'd even deflected a stunner with his bare hand. Strangely the unknown man didn't once attack Amelia herself.

"This one begins to see why you would imprison an innocent woman now. What else may one expect from those who willingly work alongside one dedicated to the spread of evil? You surround yourself with those tainted by foul influences, yet are not tainted. Are you truly so pure of spirit, or just blind? Stand down Barbie, those two are untouched by foulness."

He walked over to the ones initially dispatched and checked them over. The unknown man laid hands on two of them, and still forming bruises vanished. Out of ten aurors sent to take this intruder down, only three were still standing. Of those three one alone remained uninjured. Which raised the question in the woman's mind of just who she was dealing with.

Amelia's curiosity in regards to the man's comment about taint caused her to check the forearms of those insensate near her. Alarmingly they both had the dark mark. Since one of the more recent requirements for the post was not having served in the Dark Lord's private army, that should not have been possible. And yet it had happened. Again she wondered who this unknown man was that he could tell that without even looking.

"Who are you?" Bones finally demanded.

This caused the man to turn towards her."This one's identity of no matter. More important to know what this one is. This one, little child, am but a single warrior in an endless battle. This one is one who draws a line in the sand which Evil may not pass. This one is a ghost, unseen and heard till they strike at down the heart of corruption. This one has come to ensure a fellow champion shall be set free from unjust imprisonment."

The sword whacked him in the back of his head before settling back in it's scabbard.

_**Hogwarts**_

It had been two hours since the burning pain began. Two hours since he'd recklessly drank a potion which may or may not restore his original form. Ronald Weasly was starting to hedge his bet on 'may not' with side stakes on 'will kill me'. Since drinking the potion water had been flowing off the boy as if he was melting. Yet no mass had been lost because of it. But now the agony was starting to fade. The blue hue of his skin also was fading into pink.

Not that Ron had noticed that. All he'd noticed was his throat was raw from screaming. As the torture finally came to an end the sound of cracking wood echoed through the room. All eyes turned to where the sound had come from. When Ron pulled his wand out of the pocket he stored it in he stared. There was a jagged line down the length of his wand. But it wasn't exactly a split. Or rather not just a split. It almost looked like ice had forced it's self along the length of it.

In all the time since Ron had drank the potion his two friends had refrained from sharing his act. To Hermione it was due to the extreme pain her friend was suffering. She didn't exactly consider herself a coward. Yet at the same time taking risks for no real gain seemed foolish. For all anyone had known, the potion was killing Ron. Harry on the other hand was thinking long and hard. The entire situation was because his magic had gone haywire while casting a spell

The fact that magical accidents had stopped after Halloween meant something. Harry just wasn't sure what. And no one had bothered trying to figure it out, let alone explain things. The truth was that it sometimes felt like Harry was being prevented from learning anything important to his own well being. The teachers themselves weren't too bad. But they treated him like a little kid. That was something he hadn't really been in years.

Innocence had been beaten out of the youth by his uncle and cousin. Wide eyed wonder had been starved out of him by his aunt. In their place was a boy of surprising maturity. He was quiet and a hard worker. And Harry Potter had no illusions of how harsh the world was. Magic wasn't some great adventure, it was a tool to protect himself. Friends weren't something to take for granted, but to cherish and protect with his life if needed.

Of the teachers only one had seemed to even partly see this about the boy. That teacher was huge, maybe as tall as Hagrid. Yet she wasn't anywhere near as bulky. It was hard to respect someone who allowed an axe to be plunged into your chest though. In all honesty Harry thought the Defense against Dark Arts teacher was a little scary. In part it was due to her knowledge of ways to kill. In part it was her enthusiasm for the subject of killing supernatural entities. But mostly it was the axe to the chest.

"No," he finally insisted after hours of debating the choice.

That it would mean being unable to go back to number 4 Privot drive was a huge bonus. It was a bit of a surprise when his friend Hermione also chose not to risk the potential cure. Her reasoning was completely unfathomable to the young man. He'd have thought Hermione would have jumped at the chance to be human again. _Girls, who can figure them out?_ The young man thought ruefully Harry then decided to try explaining his own reasons. And that would probably take a while.

_**Sunnydale**_

There were times when Buffy Summers hated the quiet. They weren't often, usually she enjoyed the piece of Normal such times offered. But sometimes she hated it. She hated it today because she couldn't help but think. And thinking this time meant she had to actually consider her own actions. Self reflection wasn't a strong point of the teen. Point of fact, she did her best not to consider her life. There were a multitude of reasons behind that subconscious choice.

Chief among them was the decidedly bleak outlook on Buffy's future. Already she was defying the odds by simply surviving. _I died._ There it was again, that troubling thought which refused to stay banished. _I died after only six months as the Slayer._ Again with the depressing thought that wouldn't go away. Why did it plague her today? It was that demon's fault. The monster had reminded Buffy what happened that night. The demon that tried to kill her Angel, thus proving it was evil.

Or at least that was Buffy's line of reasoning. It seemed pretty reasonable. Demons were Evil. The girl was a demon. That meant that Rei was Evil and had finally proved it a few days ago. Then again the teenage girl had never questioned the origin of Slayers. Nor did she question if all demons were evil threats to humanity. The fact she'd been romancing a vampire also was swept under the rug of denial. That line of thought was another reason Buffy hated the quiet these days.

Vampires were evil with a capital E. They killed people for fun. They killed people to feed. They killed people just for the 'crime' of existing. But that was because they didn't have souls. Angel was good because he had a soul. Never mind that one can be extremely evil even with a soul. Ignore the fact vampires drank blood, and even with a soul Angel still did that. Also ignore the fact Angel was in fact a two hundred plus old walking corpse. Thinking of that was not 'of the good' as Willow would say.

Instead of continuing to dwell on such topics Buffy finally managed to fall asleep. Sleep however didn't give respite from her torment. Instead of peaceful oblivion or her childhood Buffy found herself back in the mental institute. But it wasn't quite the same. Instead of the off white padded room the walls were covered in rust, or blood. It was hard to tell which at a glance. The floor it's self was a blood red grate which occasionally dripped. Lights were dim, almost to the point of it being too dark to see.

From the other side of the room's only door she could hear a faint scream. Shortly after that there was an ear rending sound, possibly of metal scraping on metal but it was hard to tell. When the cell door creaked open the teenage girl couldn't help but jump a little. Cautiously Buffy pushed the door open wider and looked out. The harsh sound grinding of metal continued echoing through the halls. Halls which appeared to consist of rusty grating for walls and floor. Inhuman shapes could be seen between the grating in torturous appearing positions.

Just barely through the metallic noise came the faint sound of shuffling and moaning. It sounded ominous, so naturally Buffy found herself making her way towards where the sound came from. The lack of a weapon was disturbing. Not quite alarming, but disturbing none the less. And the ambient sounds sent chills down Buffy's spine. As she walked the teen eyed various bits of debris that littered the ground. But none of it looked very sturdy. That changed as she entered a ruined bathroom.

The mirror above the sinks was bleeding from several cracks. In the center of the cracks was a rusty but still serviceable combat knife. It's removal from the mirror was much harder then it should have been. Pulling it out however caused the blood to gush out. From one of the stalls what looked like a faceless nurse shambled. The female figure was also holding a knife. It turned towards Buffy unerringly and began to shuffle towards her.

As the teenage Slayer tried to wipe blood from her eyes the faceless nurse continued it's approach. _Why isn't my slaydar going off? _Buffy wondered in a panic as she backed up. That panic only grew when fighting off the demon nurse proved really hard. The creature ended up being stronger, and slightly faster. By the time the teen had managed to slay the nurse demon Buffy had been cut several times. One of them was deeper then expected. Which lead to her thinking _What if there's more around?_

Suddenly the nightmarish asylum was even more frightening.

**November 26th**

_**Hogwarts**_

When an unknown man of oriental decent approached the castle few took notice of the fact. That he was armed with an ornate sword was a passing curiosity to a few centaurs. Yet since the stranger took no action against the centaurs it wasn't thought upon for long. After all, the stars had said nothing important would happen that day. What was interesting was that some of the dark creatures that lived in the forest avoided his presence like they were scared of the man.

_"_That's odd," the man commented as he checked a GPS tracker. "It was working a minute ago."

He spoke with a Japanese accent, Which fit considering he appeared to be from that nation. His mode of dress on the other hand was a century or two out of date. Which meant if it'd been European in style it would have fit in perfectly at the castle the man was approaching. Instead the man was wearing a light green kimono with a red dragon that wrapped around the torso. Over the years the man had gone by many many names.

He was born Eric Von Mason, the middle of three children born to a carpenter in Norway. As a young man he'd earned the code name of 'Liquid Ghost' for his infiltration skills while serving the united state's central intelligence agency. For a time he'd lost all memory of his past. During that period of time he'd gone by the moniker of 'Emerald Avenger' and fought crime publicly as a costumed adventurer. The man had even spent time in another dimension as a wandering warrior believing his name to be 'Jake Grooberman'.

Many names he'd worn over the years. Many faces as well. Most of them were not his own. In truth as the man exited the forest near an ancient Scottish castle the face he wore was not the face he'd been born with. Perhaps it was paranoia, but Eric had felt this meeting would not be good to do as himself. Since there was still a good distance between him and the keep, the man stood there and thought. Finally he nodded to himself.

"Well Barbie, what do you think of messing with them?" He asked.

_"What do you have in mind now?"_ a telepathic voice replied.

"Oh, not much. Just convincing them you're the reason I can fly."

He got the impression of snickering and a mental nod. The man drew his weapon and thrust it forward into the air. As he did this Eric shot off in the direction his sword was pointing. At what appeared to be the apex of his ascent the asian man swung the sword downward. His flight path followed the arc of his sword, altering his trajectory towards the keep's main entrance and completely bypassing the outer walls. As he came down the man twisted so his feet impacted with the sturdy oak door.

The fact it actually opened from the impact was what set off the headmaster's personal wards. Oh, the castle had it's own wards. Dumbledore however had taken to setting up additional ones for several decades which only answered to him. It was for that reason alone the old wizard had been alerted to the intruder. The castle's wards hadn't alerted him at all. On the other hand, they had been actually disabled since the students had arrived. As the old man quickly strode through the halls (the headmaster did _not_ rush anywhere) he wondered what the latest problem was.

What the headmaster found was a man who might have been in his thirties or forties yet gave off a feeling of incredible age. Passive scans of the man's mind only helped to strengthen that impression of being a child next to him. And that was a feeling Dumbledore had not experienced in a while. The aged wizard was about to demand answers when he saw something within the other person's mind which was a little disconcerting. And that was a man of European ancestry engaged in frantic battle with hordes of monstrous creatures while wielding the self same weapon worn by this man.

How the one seen in memory was connected to this man was something Dumbledore was unaware of just yet. It did seem odd however to see things from that perspective. It wasn't that he saw the memory from the point of someone else watching it. Rather he got the impression it was himself watching from the outside. When searching for more about the stranger Dumbledore got confusing results. It was as if he was standing before dozens of men instead of one. The name which stood out the most however was Wong Sun Lao. Or at least that was the name at the forefront.

"How may I help you Mister Lao?"

The Asian man responded with "You may respect the privacy of this one's mind. Beyond this most basic form of respect, you may escort this one to their accommodations."

The method of speech was rather formal. It also conveyed the the impression of being looked down upon. It already was starting to grate on the ears, the Asian man's own as well. There was true disdain held for these unusual Europeans too. After having been filled in two days previous on the full situation, the Asian appearing man had come to believe this entire hidden society was corrupt. Not all the people in it, but the society it's self. _What 'accommodations' is he expecting?_ Dumbledore thought bemusedly.

"This one has received urgent summons to wart of swine. This one now here. Why has this one been summoned?"

It took the headmaster a moment to decipher what was said. There was a reason he actively prevented students from other nationalities after all. Dumbledore hated having to figure out what they said. Not that he made such knowledge public. Upon determining the stranger's meaning he began a more active probe into the other man's mind. If he saw the foot which impacted Dumbledore's temple was something which would remain a mystery for a while yet.

"Man, what's with these people? I _warned_ him to stay out of my mind. Ah well, once more into the breach, eh Barbie?"

"_Indeed 'Wong Sun Lao', but why that persona? Why not come as yourself?" _The sword asked.

"Mostly due to habit. I've used Lao for public appearances for so long it almost seems natural. Besides, I'd rather not give that moldy ports guy any real intel on me."

He bent down and lifted the headmaster with a slight grunt of effort. The scroll had said to come to the castle's great hall. The question was how to reach it. No directions had been given. So with a slight shrug Eric began to search. The first time stairs moved beneath him came as a shock. And he was almost positive the halls themselves were moving, but that was silly. By the time an hour had gone by it was starting to get annoying. Eric also had begun to worry that he'd struck the old fool too hard.

The tang of disinfectants struck his nose, which brought a sigh of relief to the Asian man. Eric turned back to the door which he'd gotten the whiff while passing. Eric pushed the door open and found himself standing outside of an infirmary. He cleared his throat loudly to attract attention from the stout woman tending a handful of men and women. He didn't drop his guard though. This could all still be a trap. Unlikely as it was, Eric felt it was still a possibility.

"This one bring fool in need of treatment." He said. "Fool suffer blow to head. Own fault, this one warn no invade this one's mind. This one be called Master Lao. Directions to great hall this one much appreciate honored healer."

_XxXxX_

When lunch came around Susan Mason made her way to the great hall. There was one day left until her ultimatum came due. As such the demi-god was dotting her I's and crossing her T's. That meant submitting her findings to the authorities, along with her authorization for executing criminals who dealt with the supernatural. And wasn't _that_ a pain. Part of it had involved a meeting with the head of magical law enforcement and her mother. Which had in turn lead to accusations of Susan being a 'dark' creature by one busybody named Lucius Malfoy.

The very idea of her being a 'dark' creature was laughable. Even the most evil of those with her calling would still lay down their own life to protect humans from supernatural evil. The idea was still more hilarious considering just how long Susan had been holding the line against supernatural forces out to enslave or destroy humanity. In her time Susan had met vampires who sought to do good deeds, and angels who were worse monsters then many demons.

As such the idea of unilaterally labeling everyone with specific traits as 'dark' was laughable. Even if most entities of certain types tended to be evil, there were always exceptions. This was a fact the Ministry seemed to forget or ignore. Susan wasn't sure which one it was. It's hard for even the most corrupt of government to claim your a creature of evil however when your resume for destroying demons and monsters is twelve inches thick. Even harder when several gods of Light backed your past actions. The meeting with the DMLE had also been an eye opener.

_Huh, Eric's here? And in his 'Master Lao' guise no less. Guess it was him I heard about thrashing Miss Bone's aurors. I wonder what's up? It's not like he's here to see me. Hell, we've barely spoken in a couple years._ When the aged martial artist approached the staff table her musing was brought to an abrupt halt. _And where is the bastard?_ She wondered upon noting Dumbledore's absence. The school's students also had taken note of this oddity.

The deputy headmaster, whose name Susan always had trouble pronouncing, stood and greeted the apparent stranger. To keep up the fiction of them not knowing each other Susan focused on her lunch instead of what was said. Besides, it always annoyed her when Eric delved so deeply into that particular persona. It was one of the reasons they split up after all. Maybe in a few years when 'Master Lao' was too old and had to be retired. But until then the paranormal exterminator felt keeping her distance was a good idea.

"Wait, why is the hat being brought out?" She asked Snape, who was sitting next to her.

_**London**_

There was something seriously wrong going on, and Amelia Bones wasn't sure just what it was. The headmaster of Hogwarts had tried to get his defense against dark arts teacher declared to be a Dark creature. That hadn't gone over nearly as well as the old man had likely expected. In fact Bones was still a little shocked at just who and what had shown up in her office yesterday. That namely was several gods, among them Ishtar and Ra. Having the Babylonian goddess of war and beauty visit had been alarming. Seeing a heavily armed teacher greet said goddess with a warm hug even more so.

Learning that the Egyptian god of the sun was a drinking buddy to the Babylonian god of magic had also shaken her world view. Then of course had been the most shocking revelation. The goddess Ishtar had demanded to know what her role in Ranma Nightbane missing a 'ladies night' poker game was. The Ministry had strict classifications of magical beings. They were either 'Light', which there were very few of, or 'Dark', which was the majority of magic beings.

The very concept of neutrality was alien to the wizardry world. Especially when it came to non-wizard sentient creatures. Nearly all of those were classified as Dark, including goblins and centaurs. As such the idea of a demon being neutral and thus nether Light or Dark was hard to understand. But being chewed out by a goddess for capturing and trying to interrogate a demon was something new. And now here she was approaching the home of Ms Nightbane (learning the demon was actually married had also been a shock).

"What are you doing here?" The red haired demoness demanded when she opened the door. "Was not ruining my mission enough? I was given a simple yet long term task. A task which you short shortsightedly have ended prematurely. Now I must report to my employers that the Potter boy is not protected from persecution by your corrupt government."

"But," Bones began only to be interrupted.

"That may just work. Yes, you will accompany me to the meeting Miss Bones. And you will be the one to explain why my mission has failed."

"Wha?" Was all the head Auror could get out before being dragged back to the bedroom.

_**Sunnydale**_

She had to admit the kid was brave. Stupid, but brave. To think that with little training and no real chance of success Alexander Harris had decided to guard his friend's hospital room. And he did so alone. Furthermore he'd done so without telling anyone about his plan. Yet what truly impressed Rei was not his foolish act of bravery. No, it was the fact he'd actually managed to chase off a master vampire. That fact alone was alarming since it raised many questions about the class clown.

It spoke of an intensity which could scare the undead. The question was where did it come from? Rei knew he had a nearly obsessive need to fight vampires. Yet the teenage boy hadn't displayed anything which would account for causing Angellus to back down. And Harris wasn't talking about how he'd actually done it. Not for the first time Rei wished she still had access to the sacred fire. Without it her precognitive gifts were much harder to use.

All they were telling the ancient warrior about Harris was a confusing image of a calendar with several days circled. A check against the lunar cycles had only furthered the confusion. The circled days didn't correspond to any phase of the moon she could see. That meant he wasn't a lycanthrope of any sort. But that left the puzzle unsolved. Nothing her mentor had taught had dealt with this. Not that Rei had been studying under Miss Mason too long.

They'd been traveling together for a little under a year when they stumbled across the possessed man that started this current situation. And since then Rei had found herself frequently vacillating between boredom and frantic research on how to stop the latest threat. Wistfully she thought back to the centuries spent fighting Queen Beryl over and over as the senshi of Mars. The first time had been frantic at times too. But with age things became easier.

After a while the war with Beryl had gotten so easy that they had made a game of it repeatedly. Her friend making a statue of the many silver imperium crystals. they recovered was just one indication of those games. It had been simpler. Find a monster, and destroy it with the magic equivalent of blunt trauma. None of the subtle or complex plans being dealt with now. If she stayed in Sunnydale too long, Rei knew things would only get more complicated.

_Meatball head would hate it here,_ she thought with a little amusement. _She never did like studying._ Thinking of the woman who had been her friend for over a thousand years called to mind other things. Among them a man they'd met a long time ago during one of the weirder time loops. Madam Mister was an oddball. A woman who had claimed to be born a man in the Victorian era. A scientist who specialized in steam tech. Oddly enough she'd seen Madam Mister on the news a few times since the loops had finally ended.

Then again there were many other things that hadn't been around previously. The castle her sensei was currently working in was one of them. This plague of demons and demonic vampires was another. Or was it just that they had only focused on Japan all this time? Had these things always been around? It was hard to tell. But at least some things were still the same. Among them was an old friend who no longer remembered her.

Rei remembered Sam from before the loops had began. And maybe when things settled down here a bit she'd go visit the man, woman, it was as confusing as with Ranma. She hadn't seen the others in a few years either. Last Rei had heard they were all working for that detective guy again. He was another person she'd not seen in entirely too long. The senshi paused in her reflections. Why did musing about what was going on with the Harris boy cause her to think about people she hadn't seen in centuries?

Then it hit her. What if it's a different monthly cycle? There were other things which ran in regular cycles for specific days each month. Most of ones Rei could think of off hand made little sense for a man with no job though. _Speaking of which,_ Rei thought, _tomorrow's our yearly reunion. I wonder how everyone's doing? And has Setsuna finally gotten herself a boyfriend? Or maybe a girlfriend?_ Thoughts of her oldest friends gave the ancient demoness an idea on how to protect Buffy though.

_**Hogwarts**_

When the evening meal came around it was discovered that four students were missing. Ordinarily one might have assumed a tryst or prank. However the students who'd gone missing were from all four houses. Not to mention who they were. From Griffendor Hermione Granger had vanished. From Slythren it was Draco Malfoy. Luna Lovegood had gone missing from Ravenclaw, and Susan Bones had vanished from Hufflepuff. The fact the headmaster was also not attending supper raised a few eyebrows.

"Madam Pomfry, did Dumbledore leave your ward?" Susan asked.

When the healer gave an affirmative Susan Wellington-Mason scowled. She suspected what was going on. And if correct it didn't bode well. She stood from the faculty table and checked her ever present pistol. Finding it in working order, she began to exit the room. Wong Sun Lao also stood to leave. A few hours ago he'd been affirmed as the next headmaster of the school. As such he felt it prudent to find the missing students.

Susan paused about half way to the door and asked, "Is there another place in this castle that could be used for dark rituals while staying hidden?"

Professor Sprout replied "The room of requirement most likely, but why?"

"Because I probably have some student sacrifices to prevent. Now where is this 'room of requirement' and how do I enter it?" Susan snapped. "This is what I found him researching a month ago."

The defense teacher tossed a book to her fellow teacher. One which had a bookmark in it still. Even a quick skimming of the bookmarked page had the herbology teacher worried. According to that quick review it was a ritual which was unquestionably Dark. It involved blood magic of the worst sort, human sacrifice. While the effects were unclear from such a quick perusal, the ritual was undoubtedly one to prevent at all cost. Even the name sounded serious. After all one didn't name a spell or ritual 'warrior undying' without due cause.

Nor did it help that the ritual described had been created by the undeniably dark wizard and self styled naval captain Skar Lett. A man who was reportedly executed six hundred and seventy nine times. At least a hundred more recorded deaths were from injuries suffered in battle. While not the most powerful of dark wizards, he'd been notable for being as hard to stop as a cockroach infestation. In fact Skar Lett had once bragged that he was indestructible.

A house elf named Tiddly was quickly summoned and told to escort Susan to the room of requirement. Considering how pale she looked, it was no real surprise when Minerva pulled the tome out of the other teacher's hands. In this fashion all the staff present read the passage. Each in turn paling in horror. The exception was Professor Snape. It was hard to imagine him being able to grow any more pale then the man already was.

In the halls Susan raced after the house elf. Sure it (probably) could have teleported her. However there was no guarantees that wouldn't damage her equipment. At her side was the elderly seeming Asian man. For someone who appeared old and infirm he did move remarkably well. But then she knew the secret. What Susan didn't know was why he'd gone with Lao instead of come as himself. It wasn't like the two of them had doubles in this dimension.

"Why are you here? And why Lao?" Susan asked as they sprinted through the halls.

They reached a flight of stairs leading up as the man answered. "This one most aggrieved. Rescue of Nightbane this one did preform. Trouble again did she find."

Silence reigned after that Long experience let the Defense teacher interpret her husband's comment. _Seems the ministry isn't safeguarded anymore. Shoot. That'll probably make things unnecessarily hard._ They approached the painting mentioned and saw a door appear on the opposite wall. Both man and woman looked at each other and nodded. Susan drew her odd pistol and held it at the ready. 'Lao' drew the magic sword at his waist.

Together they kicked open the large double doors. Arrayed before them was a vast chamber, far too large to actually fit within the castle's dimensions. There were four ritual alters arranged around the room. Each one held a missing student chained to it. There were runes engraved into the floor around each alter and drawn on the students. From the distance it was impossible to tell who each student was with any real clarity. Just their genders.

One of the females was bleeding. Professor Dumbledore stood above the other female student with an already bloody dagger in hand. He was chanting as the dagger was lowered towards the helpless student. With a soft 'pfft' sound Susan fired a bolt of telekinetic force at the dagger, knocking it out of the old man's hand. In truth the blade didn't just leave his hand. It left in two pieces, the blade spinning off and embedding it's self a wooden support arch.

"What would the ritual have done if successful?" Lao asked with his heavily accented english.

Susan snapped back "Not sure, but it's called Warrior Undying. Sounds bad, and anything involving murder is unquestionably Evil."

The unnaturally tall woman rolled to the side to avoid an emerald bolt of magic. She wasn't entirely sure what the 'reducto' spell did, but was unwilling to test it on her own body. The explosion that erupted from behind said more then enough. Lao surged forward at the same time. Enchanted steel flashed twice and severed the iron chains binding Dumbledore's would be second victim. With practiced grace the aged martial artist scooped up Susan Bones and swiftly removed her from the room.

With the teen moved to safety, the next greatest concern was the girl already injured. A gut wound if his eyes read the situation correct. And those were never good. Without proper medical treatment they were usually fatal. And even with said treatment they were not always survived. Recalling where the medical ward had been, Lao cut Luna free and picked her up. As the asian man lifted into the air he was struck in the chest with a jade bolt.

The force of the impact caused the floating champion to sail out the sacrificial chamber with his charge. Lao hit the wall and slid to the ground, wincing in pain from the impact. At the same time he felt disguised metal plates which had been grafted onto his chest long ago and in another dimension smolder and darken. _That should have killed me. Once again the cyber armor saves my life. Only this time I can't replace it._ _Gives me an idea though._

As he flew rapidly through the halls the man triggered a chemical reaction. While normally he liked to personally handle any facial sculpting, he'd long ago programed his actual face into one of the five preset 'disguise' configurations of his cybernetic disguise. The fact the cybernetics were as much magic as technology anymore was completely lost to him. Still his almost almond skin lightened into that of a native of Norway. The smooth features roughened too.

His nose flattened and billowed out into it's natural shape gained from being broken far too many times. Once it had resembled a hawks beak to an extent. But then the life of first a crime fighter, then later a roving champion in another dimension had taken it's toll. The soft curve of his jaw became more angular and chiseled. Smooth skin became rough and more then a little withered from hard years living. His coarse hair stayed it's midnight black though. In short, Eric Von Mason was a rather ugly man.

The flying man burst into the hospital wing and gently laid his burden on one of the beds. Not seeing the mediwitch, he guessed the woman was still in the dining hall. As the once and future champion of justice sped through the halls once more his estranged wife was continued trying to defend the students. Back in the room of requirement Susan had taken cover behind a stone pillar. She'd seen what that green bolt had done to Eric. And felt what it did to her ghost armor's protective energy field.

Each of those 'Avada Kedavra' spells packed quite the punch too. Aside from the explosions they were causing upon hitting anything, it immediately shut down her ghost armor's protective field each time. Which meant Susan was starting to get a little psychically tired from restoring it repeatedly. A quick check of her ghost gun showed it was down to one TK round left. Her ecto shotgun was still in her personal chambers too. _Enough psi energy left for one reload and maybe two more activations of my armor. I have to end this now._

"You know, you aren't the first nutjob who mistakes the 'greater good' for personal power I've taken down. Nor are you the strongest. At the end of the day Albus, you're just another notch on my gun belt. And in six months I wont even remember most of this fight. It's just that minor."

The taunt seemed to work. The wizened old man flew into a rage at his grand magnitude being ignored. He was Albus Dumbledore, the Leader of Light, the headmaster of Hogwarts now and forever! How dare this subhuman creature claim him to be insignificant! And while Dumbledore was letting loose his anger with a wandless telekinetic rampage she spun out from where the woman had taken cover. With three quick pulls of the trigger she sent invisible bullets of pure psionic force towards his head, heart, and left lung.

The trio of impacts sent him backwards. Brain matter splattered on the ground behind where Dumbledore had been standing. Blood from the other two impacts also sprayed in great fountains. It was a sight that Hermione would be seeing in her nightmares for years to come. And one which would cause Draco to have trouble looking at red meats for the rest of his life. With the fighting now quite obviously done, the weary warrior collapsed to the ground in mental, if not physical exhaustion.

"I'm sorry you two had to see that," Susan said sadly. "In my classes I've talked about what I do. But to see how ugly it gets... you kids are too young for that. I was too young when I first encountered the supernatural too I suppose. Anymore I think all mortals are too young to see things like this. Huh, mortals... When did I stop thinking of myself as one? I'm getting too old for this life."


	3. Chapter 3

"_telepathic speech"_

_thoughts_

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Ranma ½, Ah! My Goddess, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or Harry Potter. Hey, is that a Silent Hill reference too I see? Why yes is and I don't own that property either. Captain Scarlet as well? I don't own Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, sorry. That would belong to Century 21 television. I make no money from this, nor do I plan on trying to. This is purely for fun.

**Warning:** There will be OOC for some characters. It is an AU though, so that can almost be expected.

**Timeline Issues:**

_*Wings of Paradise is mainly set around 1998 or so and takes place during the first major storyline for Sailor Moon_

_*Wings of Recursion is set in a twenty year period between 1998 and 2018, looping over and over_

_*Wings of Destiny is set in 2008, and starts ten years after the time loops finally end_

_*For the most part I was not verifying what day of the week any given date falls upon. As such if you notice I have classes on what proves to be a weekend, or claim a day falls on Saturday when it was actually Wednesday I would appreciate you letting me know so I can fix such references. Honestly, it didn't occur to me to verify such minor details until half way through writing chapter 2. Nor did I sit down to pin down exact dates for when each story is set till part way through chapter 2 of this, the third story._

_**biNeedless to say this series is set in an Alternate Timeline**_

_**Wings of Destin**_

_By _

_Faerie Knight_

**November 27th**

_**Hogwarts**_

The morning after Wong Sun Lao's arrival was anything but calm. The mysterious Lao had been declared dead, killed by Dumbledore the previous day. In his place was an ugly Nordic man who favored the most atrocious brown and green outfits imaginable. Worst of all, he was refusing to wear a proper robe! That this mystery man carried the same ornate sword as Lao caused still more talk. With the crisis of the previous day classes had been put on hold.

Towards the end of breakfast the man stood to speak. His English had the distinctive accent of a Norseman. His unconscious mannerisms seemed to match too. This made it harder for a few people to understand the man. But most were able to figure it out. After all, it was still a European accent. Barely European, but European none the less. Thus it was similar to someone from the deep south in America visiting a northern state. It would be hard, but people could understand what was being said with a little effort.

"Many of you probably want to know who I am. That's... complicated. Over the years I've answered to many things. My title however is the Avenger. And no, I will not be giving tours of my tardis."

Susan groaned softly. Across the table from her Snape was rolling his eyes. Many of the muggle born students had began to snicker. Those who had grown up in the magical world however were confused by the comment. It was obvious only about a third of the student body had managed to get the joke. The faculty too had missed the humor. Well, most of it had. Again Snape showed signs of understanding the reference.

"Rumors of what happened yesterday are circulating I'm sure. But those events are between the former headmaster, the four students who had gone missing, and Professor Wellington-Mason. It's not my decision weather or not to share. And I request that you not hound them. Dealing with what happened will be hard enough as it is. What you do need to know is that I have been appointed as the new headmaster of the school. Unlike the previous headmaster, I will be as open and honest as I can. Certain things may be kept secret, but if I can't tell you I'll explain why.

"I've heard of what's been going on. And as of now there will be a zero tolerance policy in regards to bullying. I don't care about house rivalries. A little friendly competition never hurt anyone. Bullies however will not be tolerated. You're all here to learn to control your magic, not become the next would-be conquer someone will have to put down. Also, third years next year will have a new optional course they can sign up for celestial calligraphy. For those curious about this type of magic, my office will be open until eight."

At the griffendor table two students in particular were concerned. Hermione was still in the hospital wing. Their friend hadn't been hurt, at least not that they knew. Still something had happened to her. Ronald Weasly was close to panic. Rumors had it that Headmaster Dumbledore had been killed. Or killed someone. Or perhaps was a werewolf. No one was sure what exactly happened. But that was unthinkable. Dumbledore was the Leader of Light, he'd never do anything like that!

Harry on the other hand could honestly say he didn't exactly believe the hype. Sure the old man had seemed like a kind old grandfather. Then again when in public his own uncle could seem like a decent human being. And you don't become known as the 'leader of light' or gain any of the many titles Dumbledore had just by being a kindly grandfather figure. And the more stuff happened throughout the school year the less Harry had believed the old man's image.

Either Dumbledore was a senile fool, or not what he pretended. It was the only thing which Harry could think of to explain events. Between the giant three headed mastif, troll, and attempt to murder harry things just didn't fit the 'kindly old man' image and still match Dumbledore's reputation for being a powerful wizard. The DADA teacher on the other hand matched words to actions perfectly. Miss Wellington-Mason was easy to get a read on.

_Sunnydale_

_Where am I?!_ Buffy thought for the thousandth time. It seemed like ages since she'd first come to in this nightmarish hospital. The room she currently was in had been safe so far. But with all the monsters roaming the halls Buffy had no illusions that would last. The teen still didn't know how she got here. Or why her Slayer strength had vanished. What Buffy did know was that those homicidal faceless nurses were wearing her out.

It felt like she'd been fighting for her life for days, maybe weeks. And if she was honest, the only reason Buffy was still alive was the occasional bottle of 'health drink' she'd found. How the foul tasting beverage was mending wounds Buffy didn't know. Nor did she feel the need to ask. All that mattered was that it was working. Finding a way out of this creepy hospital though was very high on the Summers girl's agenda. There were a few problems though.

One of the biggest ones was the seemingly endless horde of monsters around practically every corner. Another problem was the plethora of riddles that abounded in this nightmarish place. Logic puzzles, musical riddles, shape recognition conundrums, there were far too many such obstacles. And worst of all they kept getting harder to solve. One of the first had been simple, just find and look at a couple x-rays to figure out the door's password.

But now it was confusing things like that creepy poem Buffy had been forced to use to figure out another numeric password. But things were starting to look up. If the map Buffy had found could be believed, she was near an elevator. And that meant a way to the ground floor, thus also an exit. _I can do this,_ the teen thought. _Just have to avoid that pyramid head guy._ The thought seemed to summon the entity though.

The first hint that particular entity was near was the horrific scrapping sound it's massive cleaver like weapon made as it was dragged. Hearing it, Buffy grabbed the lead pipe she'd been using as a weapon and fled the formerly safe room. Three times already she'd tried fighting the pyramid headed creature. And each time it had simply ignored everything. The nurse like creatures were a threat mostly due to their numbers. The carniverous insects due to how hard they were to spot in advance.

Pyramid head though was relentless and unstoppable. It shrugged off blunt force trauma and cutting attacks with the knife Buffy had found equally. When she'd tried throwing a propane tank at it there was a good sized explosion. And yet Pyramid Head as Buffy had began calling it hadn't been phased. That was why it scared her so badly. As she ran Buffy didn't have the breath to say anything. So instead she indignantly thought _This is so unfair!_

_XxXxX_

Rei had to admire the boy's guts. His secret still hadn't been learned. And yet again she watched as Alexander Harris attempted to do the impossible. What was the boy doing that was so impressive? The kid had managed to somehow contact Hild herself. Not only that, but he was arguing with the ruler of Nephilhiam. The reason for this argument in it's self baffled Rei. The Harris boy had stormed into the library in a rage, fire axe at the ready. And why did he do that?

Harris claimed he had gotten serious wiggins. What made the confrontation even more baffling was how he'd known Hild was here. Harris had no real way to sense demons or energy in general. And he'd been at the hospital guarding Buffy Summers, or should have been there. If there was anything good about the confrontation, it was that Hild seemed more amused then angry. Considering the fire axe which had been swung at the ruler's back, that was a very good thing.

"You need to calm down Xander-San. And you still haven't explained your presence Hild-Sama."

_Isn't she polite. I'd have thought she grew out of that long ago_. the ruler of Nephilhiam thought to herself. It was amusing that the mortal boy thought he could harm her. And with an axe no less! All Hild had to do was channel a bit of her infernal magic into toughening her skin, and the blade would be more likely to shatter then cut. It wasn't even a moment to do just that. Then the weapon impacted. And to Hild's surprise it actually drew a little blood. Not to mention cut through the back of her dress.

Rei Hino blanched upon seeing this. Her mind raced back to the previous Halloween, and the costume Willow had convinced Rei to create for Xander. It had been far more daring then Rei herself would have ever worn, once upon a time. Even now it wasn't her preferred mode of dress. And that had been the problem as far as Xander had been concerned. He had worn a skin tight and highly revealing pink lycra dress.

One that looked very similar to the one currently being worn by... Oh shit! That's what the vision means! Rei turned slowly and looked at the Harris boy. Willow had snuck back into the costume shop, and thus got permanently changed by her costume. But surely Xander had been smart enough not to do that. After all, the boy had changed back into a boy after the spell was broken. _How did I not see this before?!_

"Hey _mother_," Xander stated sarcastic even as the fire axe drew blood. "What's the what?"

The well endowed platinum blond pinched her nose upon hearing this. "Alexandria Wodendotter, you will stop torturing your own language this instant. And show your face."

The air around Xander shimmered, and a teenage version of Hild stood there holding the axe. Or rather, almost a teenage copy of Hild. There were some differences. Eye color and bust size were among them. Fashion sense also was wildly divergent. The garish blue, green, and yellow Hawaiian shirt was still there. Only now it was barely restraining the twin mounds beneath it. Other, more subtle differences were there too. The shape of the nose and curve of her chin were different then Hild.

That the two could be related was easy to see. But that didn't explain why Harris was calling the impossibly old woman 'mother'. Unless... When Hild saw Rei's growing distress the demonic ruler laughed. It wasn't a nice laugh. The school librarian shuddered at the sound. Willow Rosenburg twitched as a part of her welcomed the sound, while the rest was horrified. And the newly revealed to be female Alexander Harris merely swung her weapon a second time.

As Hild casually caught the moving weapon she asked "Are you sure you wont work for me Rei-chan?"

The question came out of nowhere. It had no connection to anything else going on. And thus it actually caused Xander to drop her axe in shock. Giles had already managed to snap his glasses in two with his furious polishing by this point. This was an understandable, if regrettable reaction to the presence of one so powerful and undeniably not 'of the good' as Buffy's friends were wont to say. Rupert hadn't felt this much raw power in a single individual ever.

"As for why I am here, I've come to collect on a couple violated contracts."

This caused Rei's red skin to pale by several shades. While aligned with Ranma Nightbane and thus officially neutral, Rei had taken the time to learn more of her friend's usual employers. Thus she was well aware of the significance of a demonic contract. To her way of thinking Rei couldn't see any reason why someone would make a deal with any demon, herself included. But to then violate the terms of a deal, that was suicidal at best.

The crimson hued succubus couldn't help but ask "Who are you here for?"

If Rei's voice held a tremble no one could blame her. This was one of the two most powerful entities she'd ever encountered. And definitely the most casually malevolent one. Unlike her sensei, Rei not only respected but feared this woman. Respect normally had to be earned. However not respecting Hild was a sure way to end up dead, or worse. Spying Mister Giles trembling in fear as if his immortal soul was about to be ripped out too was alarming. And why did Willow also look like she feared for her life?

The older woman pulled a slip of paper out from her bust and looked it over. "Oh, no one too important. Just a man named Richard Wilkins and girl named Buffy Summers."

_**London**_

As Amilia Bones landed she couldn't help but groan in pain. It seemed like ages since she'd been taken to speak to that demon's boss. That wasn't an occasion Amilia had any desire to repeat. Ever. Even the one eyed man who'd been at the initial meeting had been a little frightening. That was perhaps due to the righteous fury he had been exuding. Then after _he_ had left Miss Nightbane had abandoned Amilia there. Which was when the torment had began.

How long had she been held captive? How much time had elapsed while the demons had physically and mentally tortured her? It was impossible to say. Not that there was any evidence besides the tattered remnants of Amilia's robes and sundered wand. And what made everything worse was the repeatedly pointed out fact that Amilia's own torment was for sins she was the cause for being allowed. It was enough to break anyone.

Yet somehow she'd managed to stay sane. Not only that but the head Auror had somehow managed to grow stronger of will. Finally she managed to check the self updating Famous Wizards and Witches calender. What Amilia saw brought her to a screeching halt. _One day? That's impossible,_ she thought in confusion. But there it was before her eyes. A series of explosions from outside the building pulled her out of the daze this latest revelation had caused.

Still in a great deal of pain, Amilia made her way to a window. Only for her jaw to drop. There in the street was a man dressed like a seven foot tall hotdog firing ketchup and mustard from two spray guns. The detonations were being caused by the two streams of thick liquid merging and impacting against the street and other objects. This bizzare figure appeared to be doing battle with a man made entirely of ice who was wearing an odd bodysuit.

The shoulders were gray, as were the outer half of both legs and the sides. The rest was solid white and formed a T. The figure was wearing grey boots in a lighter shade then the strips on his body suit. He also wore matching gray fingerless gloves. Another oddity about this figure was that despite being made of ice, he had dark blue hair with matching mustache and a pointed beard. The ice person flipped through the air gracefully while preforming a mid-air cartwheel to avoid a spray of mustard.

"Give up Peroski, you know you can't win." The ice person taunted. "After all, even an old man can stop you."

One of the explosive mixed streams struck at ground where the ice person was landing. The detonation sent him flying backwards and through the window Amilia was looking out of. Due to her soreness and shock moving out of the way had not been an option. Another shock came when the ice person seemed to melt, leaving behind a ruggedly good looking man. As if by magic his cloths morphed into a tan sweater, blue jeans and work boots. The gloves shifted into cloth bands around his wrists. And the white headband turned it's self into sleek sunglasses.

The man was quite clearly hurt. The hotdog that had been called Peroski was leaving the area already. A quick floo call summoned medical aid for the injured man. Another informed her second in command of what had happened. An owl flew in through the shattered window and dropped a paper at the woman's feet. The barn owl hooted in clear displeasure before taking off. This prompted the auror to sniff the air and shudder. The distinctive aroma of brimstone surrounded her.

While waiting Amilia studied her unexpected guest. He looked to be in his thirties or forties. And he was well muscled. While not built like a body builder, he definitely worked out regularly. After removing the man's shirt she noticed he had a number of old scars on his chest. Whoever he was, this man had lived a rough life. The fact the man's jeans were starting to soak through with blood alarmed Amilia.

The mediwitch being sent was likely to be a few minutes, at least. So like any auror who'd been in the field Amilia went to work saving the man's life. Without a wand heating the water proved difficulty to say the least. Since that was a task which would take too long (the wood for her stove couldn't chop it's self after all) cold water had to be used instead. _If only there was an easier way to heat water without magic,_ Amilia thought to herself.

The woman had just returned from filling a pail with water from the basement pump when the distinctive crack of apparition could be heard. The question of why the man's shirt had been reinforced in the chest area the way it had could be asked later. Instead Amilia Bones immediately started cleaning the various cuts and contusions she could see using a damp cloth. The cloth it's self had been enchanted to apply a salve to stop blood loss when wet.

So focused was the auror on her task that she didn't notice anyone entering the home. It was a gasp of shock which first alerted her. Looking up, Amilia couldn't help but sigh in relief upon seeing who it was. Patricia Horuse was a mediwitch of some skill. When it came to recovering after dealing with dark wizards there was no one Amilia trusted more. Or at least, only one other but that woman was unavailable. The fact Patricia was a gifted seer didn't hurt matters.

"Where have you been Madam Bones? I see darkness surrounding you. Darkness blacker then any I have encountered before. And you bring me to one touched by Death. The chosen of Thunder who stands against the consuming night."

Amilia pinched her nose at this. "Must you talk in riddles? I've done what I can for hi... ah, her. But this person needs medical care."

Patricia briefly dipped her hand in the water and nodded to herself. "It's 'him'. Or 'her' I'm quite sure. I see both and neither. Death follows like an old friend, yet takes not. I see much pain for this one. Yet I see joy and contentment too. Multiple lacerations, three cracked ribs, bruised thigh bone, internal bleeding but not as much as I'd expect. Who is she?"

The fact the blue haired girl was awake had eluded the two witches until she spoke. "My name's not important. Who the hell are you two? Ow, damn that hurts. Didn't think it was this fucking bad."

Despite the pain the apparent teen rolled to her feet and faced Patricia. The left hand started to crackle with electricity. "Lower the damn stick. Didn't put up with your buddies in the masks earlier today, and I ain't taking shit from you either."

_Damn, can't transform. Whatever I hit musta been bad. And the com's out too. Fuck!_ Amilia and Patricia watched as the unknown girl slipped into a combat stance of some sort. It wasn't one the auror was familiar with. That the teen was unsteady on her feet was clear as a country day. Just the fact that the person was standing and ready to fight was rather impressive. Blood loss however meant this standoff couldn't continue.

"My friend is a healer, let her do her job." The muttered "bloody muggle" might not have been the best thing to add after that.

_XxXxX_

One should note that some people manage to push their body and mind far beyond what is normally considered possible. While few were overt about this fact, there were men and women who had taken academic study to such an extreme that they might as well have been natural geniuses. And while there weren't many, some martial artists had gone far beyond what the public thought possible. Frequently such individuals were mistaken for meta-humans.

Most were not a meta. They had just trained their body and mind to such an extent they had passed beyond merely human. Even without the mystical water based curse and experiment granted meta-human abilities Sam 'Cold Snap' Bricklebuster would have been one such person. To make up for a natural inability to walk five steps without falling Sam had turned to weight lifting and martial arts. And it was something Sam had excelled at while young.

Through sheer determination gymnastics and acrobatics had been incorporated into an already brutal combat style. Sam was constantly falling, so that got integrate into how he fought. He'd learned to turn such events into an advantage. Instead of being helpless, a fall forward due to tripping would be changed into a rolling leg sweep. A collapse backwards would be transitioned seamlessly into a kick. If unsteady on his feet, Sam would take the style's inspiration to a new level and fight as if a large cat briefly.

It wasn't pretty but it was effective at offsetting his disadvantages. When a ruthless government contractor had used an unknowing twenty year old in their experiments to create a super soldier the results had been unexpected and undesirable. All but one person in the building had died after being frozen solid and electrified. It had taken almost three days in the Florida heat before the ice had melted enough to allow anyone inside.

And in the basement emergency workers had found Sam barely alive. Later discoveries caused the project to be shut down and all notes on the research destroyed. When months later the crime fighter known as Cold Snap had appeared it had been a shock to the people who once backed project fury 13. There had been suspicions, but those got pushed to the side. Only one person had survived the introduction of that chemical into their bloodstream. It was deemed too dangerous to continue experimentation with.

That had happened back in the early eighties. Since then Sam had refined his combat style. When he had access to meta-human levels of agility watching the man fight was like a brutal dance. It was all rage and power tempered with a grace which wasn't natural. One reporter wrote that Cold Snap fought like the comic book character Captain America brought to life, only much less forgiving.

In the decades since he'd entered the 'saving lives' business Sam had seen and experienced many horrific things. He'd fought in desperate battle with a god intent on destroying everything. He'd been recruited by another god to be their champion for seven years in another reality. Between the meta-human criminals, alien conquerors, time travel, and demonic invasions Sam had lived a busy life so far. He'd been cursed, brain washed, had his memory erased, and gone through high school more times then Sam was willing to count.

If there was one thing his nearly four decades of experience with the weird and crazy it was that this oddly dressed woman was likely a cop. So when she claimed the woman with a death stick was a healer, Sam was willing to trust the information. For now. He, or rather currently she stood down and let the electric bolt Sam had prepared to throw disburse harmlessly as a static charge into the air. That didn't mean he trusted someone with a death stick, just that he stood down.

"Fine, but if she points that stick at me again I break it in half. I've seen what it can do, and I will stop her from killing anyone."

_**Hogwarts**_

He was not a pretty man, and Eric knew it. Nor was he a good man. In his already long life Eric had done things he wasn't proud of. He'd stared into the abyss, and it had smiled back at him with a toothy grin. No, he wasn't a good man. But he was noble in his own way. He lived by a strict code which demanded the defense of those who couldn't defend themselves. Once Eric would have claimed he was a hero. But that was a long time ago.

He was a spy, a soldier, and more. Eric had stood as guardian of time for a thousand years. Eric knew intimately that sometimes you had to do bad things to stop worse from happening. He also was well aware that this was a slippery slope to walk on. How easy it was to go from doing bad things to worse people to preying on the innocent. That he hadn't given up on humanity yet was a remarkable fact. Similarly it was amazing he hadn't developed the attitude of knowing better then anyone else.

_A teacher,_ Eric thought with some bemusement. _Never thought I'd be a teacher. Not in a million years._ He ran a hand through the course black hair which covered his head. In front of the apparently middle aged man were several scrolls of parchment. A fact which amused him. His desk had an ink well and feather quill as well. A glance at the odd bird like creature in the office brought a small chuckle from his lips. The bird had refused to leave after it's former master's death.

"Don't suppose you can tell me why you stuck around?"

The day so far had been a long one already. There were at least seventy years worth of screw ups and blatant misuses of power to deal with. Which meant he had to sort through everything the kid had done as Headmaster. _Huh, must be getting old if I'm calling someone who's age is in the three digit range a kid._ For a man who was physically in his mid thirties the observation was amusing. At the same time the distraction didn't help sort through the mess he'd inherited as the school's new principle, or headmaster as the position was called.

What had been found so far was nothing short of horrifying. Subtle plans of conquest stretching back sixty years or more. Or rather evidence of such plans. All evidence indicated the former headmaster had been planning on molding one student, barely eleven years old currently, into a disposable weapon. A weapon for use against another person Dumbledore had carefully molded into a murderous psychopath.

There were written acceptance speeches which implied Dumbledore intended to gain sole control of the entire British government. Likely just the first step on a much greater long range plan. With a scowl he read through another scroll just uncovered. The scroll was dated for fifty years in the future, and was an acceptance speech for being made emperor of the world. According to the speech he was expecting the majority of 'muggles' to be wiped out in a war with an as yet unnamed 'dark lord'. A dark lord who again would be weakened, but not defeated by a child before Dumbledore steps in to defeat the undefeated foe in very public combat.

"Bloody hell, I hate cleaning up after the power mad. Especially the clever ones. Wait, a prophesy?! Oh hell no." Eric pulled out a flip open cell phone and speed dialed a number. "Skuld, it's Eric. I've got a mess on my hands and need some information. No, nothing that'll get you in trouble again. I just need to know if there's a prophesy regarding a 'dark lord', made about eleven years ago supposedly. Really? Yeah, I have a copy of it here. But I don't know how much I trust the copy. Thanks kid, I appreciate the help. Right, I understand. I'll try to stop by this weekend. No promises though. Sure, I'll ask Sue if she wants to come too."

Just great, Eric thought as he hung up. _The prophesy is real. The person who gave it's a flake and a probably a fraud normally, but it's real. Just my luck._ While talking on the phone Eric had written down notes from what the other person had said. Comparing the notes with what he'd already seen brought a great belly laugh. While the foretelling as given by a miss Sybill Trelawney was mostly accurate, there were a few humorous discrepencies from what Skuld had relayed it should be.

Among them was the alteration of some words. According to Skuld, the person it refered to was suppose to be female for one thing. Amusingly the prophesy never mentioned who the 'dark lord' was. One could assume anything they want based on that. Then something occurred to him. Could the memories stored in this vial have been altered? If so it would be easy enough to test that possibility. Maybe not determine if that had actually been done though.

"Not even a day on the job and I already have a headache."

_**Sunnydale**_

Ever since Halloween Alexander Harris had known the truth about his parents. A truth which had hit like a ton of bricks. Learning you were born female, and weren't even human was a blow to the ego. But discovering your mother had abandoned you to a life of abuse? That hurt in ways Xander hadn't realized existed. That night he had discovered his mother ruled Hell from her capital city. And that he'd been turned into a mortal baby as punishment.

Punishment for what? Why for helping a human survive what should have been a catastrophically bad ritual. Now Xander remembered his past. Even his birth form was returned. Yet the only thing he could do now that hadn't been possible before Halloween was that Xander could now look like his mortal form. A form which he'd gotten use to. Even if said form now felt a little alien due to old memories returning. Every now and then he wondered what had ever happened to the boy in that pit of cats.

Making sure Enki found out about the scroll having gone missing might not seem like a crime. In truth Xander hadn't considered it one when he'd at the time arrived to grant a wish to the child. So being made mortal and put in the home of abusive drunks was far beyond the pale. Considering where said drunks lived, it was amazing he'd lived to the age of fifteen. Let alone the current sixteen years of age. Keeping the secret of what had happened on Halloween had taken little enough effort.

A secret which now had been thrown out the window by one person's arrival. Was it any wonder that Xander then twice tried to disembowel his birth mother? And being told that Mother was here for his friend's soul, that didn't sit right either. Which was why a third attempt to embed a battle axe in his birth mother's upper torso was made. Not that this attempt went any better then the previous two. Instead the well endowed woman had simply grabbed Xander's weapon mid swing and pulled it out of his hands.

"Nice craftsmanship, who made it?" Hild commented.

Alexander ' Alexandria Wodendotter' Harris scowled cutely. "You can't have the

Buffster. She's under my protection."

Hild laughed and again it sent shivers down the spines of those in the library. This time it almost seemed like the ground it's self quaked in fear. Conversely the woman's chest bounced from the laughter in a way that was almost hypnotic. Xander pulled his eyes away while mentally reminding himself that it was his mom. Idly he noticed that Willow too had been watching his mother's bouncing cleavage._Odd, I thought she liked guys._

"The summers child has reneged on the deal she made. You know what that means." Hild stated flatly once her mirth had been reigned in.

Now it was Xander's turn to laugh which caused Rei to wince. There were definite sinister undertones to that particular laugh. "Buffy's in a coma, Mother. Has been for three days so far. What could she possibly do while in a coma?"

**Author Notes:**

Sorry for the delays. It's not as long as previous chapters, I know. But this felt like a good stopping point for now. This chapter introduces a character not seen in the series since the first story. Which I plan on updating as well now that this one is updated.


End file.
